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A Beef-steak Pie

A layered beef steak pie with buttered flour crust, potatoes, and optional seafood, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

A Beef-steak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crust

  1. Make a paste with butter and flour, then divide it in half.

  2. Butter a deep dish and line the bottom and sides with one half of the paste.

Fill the pie

  1. Season the beef steak with pepper and salt, then spread a layer at the bottom of the pie.

  2. Add a layer of sliced potatoes and small bits of butter rolled in flour.

  3. Continue layering meat, potatoes, and butter until the dish is full.

  4. If using clams or oysters, moisten the layers with their liquor; otherwise, add cold water.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the pie with the other half of the paste, notching the edges and decorating with reserved paste.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or longer if needed.

  3. 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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the paste and melts into the filling, adding richness and tenderness.
Flour
Forms the paste that holds the pie together and gives it structure.
Beef steak
Provides the main meat filling, which becomes tender and savory as it bakes.
Potatoes
Add body and starch to the filling, helping it hold together when sliced and layered.

The step that matters

Adding the cold water or shellfish liquor. Liquid added to the layers turns to steam during baking and keeps the meat moist. Too little leaves the filling dry, while too much can make the paste soggy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, beef, pepper, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, beef, pepper, mushroom. 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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