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Beef Pie

A savory pie with sliced beef, onions, flour, gravy, tomatoes, breadcrumbs, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble the pie

  1. Layer the bottom of a pie dish with sliced onion.

  2. Add a layer of beef, then dredge with flour.

  3. Continue layering beef, onion, pepper, salt, and flour until the dish is full.

  4. Pour in cold gravy; add stock or water if needed.

  5. Cover the dish with scalded and peeled tomatoes, seasoning with pepper and salt.

  6. Top with bread crumbs and dot with butter.

Bake

  1. Bake in the oven until browned and heated through.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the pie and becomes tender during the long, moist bake.
Cold gravy
Provides moisture and savory flavor that soaks into the layers as the pie heats.
Flour
Dusted on the beef, it helps thicken the cooking juices into a richer sauce.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned topping that contrasts with the soft filling below.
Butter
Melts over the topping, adding fat that promotes browning and richness.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it bakes, adding aroma and depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until browned and heated through. The filling must reach a safe internal temperature, and the topping needs enough heat to brown. Pulling the pie too early leaves the center underheated and the crumbs pale.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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