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Sea Pie

Sea Pie is a layered savory pie made with flour crust, onions, potatoes, pork, and water, boiled for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sea Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Rub in the pork fat until well combined.

  3. Gradually add water to form a smooth paste.

Assemble

  1. Line a deep pudding dish with the dough.

  2. Layer in sliced onions, then potatoes, followed by sliced pork, and repeat until the dish is full.

  3. Wet the edges of the crust and place a top crust over the filling.

  4. Tie a floured cloth over the top and place the dish in a pot of boiling water.

Boil and serve

  1. Ensure the water comes up two-thirds of the way up the dish and boil for four hours.

  2. Invert the dish onto a plate, remove the mold, and serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Flour + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the dough structure that encloses the filling and holds its shape.
Baking powder
Produces gas that lightens the crust so it rises slightly rather than staying dense.
Pork fat or lard
Shortens the dough, giving a tender, crumbly texture and adding richness.
Potatoes
Add starch and body to the filling, turning soft and absorbent during the long boil.
Pork
Supplies the main savory flavour and fat that drips into the filling during cooking.

The step that matters

Keeping the water level at two-thirds of the dish. If the water is too low, the top of the pudding cooks less evenly and the crust may dry out, while water that rises over the cloth can soak the pudding and make it soggy. Steady gentle boiling keeps the steam and heat even through the long cook.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pork, potato):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pork, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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