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Beef Steak Pie

A savory pie made with roast beef, potatoes, and a flour-based crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Beef Steak 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.

Make the filling

  1. Combine cold roast beef and hot water in a pot.

  2. Add onion if desired.

  3. Simmer for 2 hours, adding more water as it boils away.

  4. Add leftover gravy and thicken.

  5. Season with pepper and salt.

Make the crust

  1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Work in lard and butter with your hands.

  3. Add milk to form a dough.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a deep dish with the dough.

  2. Place the boiled potatoes in the dish, then add the meat and gravy.

  3. Cover with remaining dough.

  4. Make a small hole in the center for steam to escape.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

Roast beef
Provides the main meat filling, which becomes tender during the long simmer.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough that encloses the filling.
Lard and butter
Adds fat that makes the crust short and tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the crust rise and lighten.
Potatoes
Add starch and body to the pie beneath the meat and gravy.

The step that matters

Make a small hole in the center of the top crust. Steam builds up inside a sealed pie as it bakes. Without a vent, pressure can lift or split the crust and make the filling soggy.

Swap the onion

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

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

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