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 ↓
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.
Prepare the filling
Brown the steak and onion in hot fat in a skillet.
Transfer the steak and onion to a pie dish.
In the same skillet, make gravy by adding water, salt, pepper, and flour; stir until thickened.
Pour the gravy over the meat in the pie dish.
Top and bake
Let it cool, then cover with puff pastry.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the pastry is golden.
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).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Steak
- Provides the main meat and savoury flavour once browned.
- Onion
- Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens in the browning fat.
- Flour
- Thickens the gravy so it sets around the meat rather than running off.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a flaky, golden crust that rises and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Let it cool before adding the pastry. Hot filling would melt the pastry's butter before it sets and could make the crust soggy or greasy. Cooling briefly lets the pastry puff and brown properly in the oven.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, flour):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Okrafits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, flour. 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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