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Beef Pie

A savory pie with sliced roast beef, gravy, and mashed potato topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Layer thin slices of beef in a pie dish, sprinkling with flour, pepper, and salt.

  2. Add chopped tomato or onion if desired, then repeat layers until the dish is full.

  3. Pour in beef gravy, or add butter and enough water to create gravy.

Make the potato crust

  1. Mash boiled potatoes with cream, butter, and salt until smooth.

  2. Spread the potato mixture over the beef as a crust, about 1 inch thick.

Bake

  1. Brush the top with beaten egg and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 25 minutes.

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. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the savory main filling that the crust covers and holds together while baking.
Flour
Coats the beef slices and thickens the gravy so the filling becomes saucy rather than watery.
Potatoes
Mashed into a soft, smooth layer that forms the crust over the filling.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness so the mashed potato topping stays smooth and spreadable.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the mashed potato crust and helps the top brown.
Egg
Brushed on top, it helps the crust take on a golden browned color.

The step that matters

Spreading the potato crust evenly over the filling. Potato mash that is too thin or too lumpy can sink into the filling or bake unevenly. Smooth mashing and an even layer of about 1 inch help the topping seal the filling and brown consistently.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, pepper, potato, cream, butter, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, pepper, potato, cream, butter, egg. 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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