Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Meat Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Cut the steak into pieces about 2 inches wide and 4 inches long.
Spread the pieces with onion, suet, pepper, and salt.
Roll up the pieces and place them in the bottom of a deep pie dish until filled.
Add enough water to cook without boiling over the crust.
Make the crust and cook
Make the crust similar to good rich biscuit dough.
Cook in the oven until the crust is done.
Remove to the top of the stove to simmer for a couple of hours, adding water as necessary to prevent burning.
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.
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 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
- Steak
- Forms the main meat filling, becoming tender during long, moist cooking.
- Suet
- Adds fat that enriches the filling and keeps the meat moist as it cooks.
- Onion
- Adds aroma and savory flavour to the meat as it cooks.
The step that matters
Adding water as necessary during the simmer. Long simmering can dry out or scorch the bottom of the pie. Keeping enough liquid in the dish prevents burning and lets the meat become tender in its own juices.
“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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