Name: Beef Steak Pie
Ingredients: beef steaks (preferably from the rump); coarse sea salt; black pepper; spices of your choice; ½ cup gravy or water; 1 tablespoon vinegar; kidney (optional, for enriching gravy); forcemeat (optional, for richness); large oysters (optional)

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Steak Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the beef into small steaks.
Roll the steaks up like olives or lay them flat in a dish, mixing fat and lean meat.
Season the meat with salt, pepper, and your chosen spices.
Add ½ cup of gravy or water and 1 tablespoon of vinegar to the dish.
For added richness, include a kidney or two, or a piece of beef kidney.
Optionally, layer forcemeat between the slices of beef or add small balls of forcemeat.
You may also add a few large oysters for extra flavor.

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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beef + oystertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Pepper + oystertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,663 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Beef + vinegartop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,895 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).