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Roast Beef Pie with Potato Crust

A baked pie of roast beef in a mashed potato crust, served with gravy and optional tomato or Worcestershire sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Roast Beef Pie with Potato Crust

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. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a stewpan, combine sliced beef, gravy, butter, onion, pepper, salt, and enough water to create gravy.

  3. Stir in flour to thicken and simmer gently to avoid burning.

Make the topping

  1. Boil potatoes until tender, then mash them smooth with milk and butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the stewed meat to a baking dish and layer the mashed potatoes on top.

  2. Brush the potato layer with beaten egg.

  3. Bake in the oven until the top is golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce or Worcestershire sauce.

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

Cold roast beef
Forms the meat filling that gives the pie its main body and savory flavor.
Gravy from the roast
Supplies moisture and flavor so the meat stays juicy under the potato layer.
Flour
Thickens the simmering gravy so it clings to the meat rather than running off.
Potatoes
Form the mashed topping that bakes into a soft layer over the filling.
Egg
Brushed on the potato layer, it promotes browning and a glossy golden finish.

The step that matters

Simmer the filling gently after adding flour. Flour thickens the gravy only when it is stirred and kept at a gentle simmer. Higher heat can scorch the bottom of the stewpan and leave a burnt taste in the filling.

Swap the onion

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

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

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