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Beefsteak Pie and Pudding

A savory pie and pudding made with beef, kidney, mushrooms, oysters, eggs, and pastry, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pie and Pudding

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. Cut the meat into small pieces and stew gently for 1 hour with a pinch of salt and enough water to cover.

  2. Chop the mushrooms and boil the eggs hard, then slice them.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a large basin or pudding dish with rich crust or puff pastry around the sides.

  2. Layer the meat with the mushrooms, sliced eggs, and freshly opened oysters, wetting with the oyster liquor, and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Ensure everything is covered with the liquor, adding water if necessary, but reserve the gravy from the meat.

  4. Place the pie in the hottest part of the oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is set, then move to a cooler part to bake slowly until golden brown.

  5. For a glazed appearance, brush the crust with egg white while baking.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + oystertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak
Provides the main meaty body and rich flavour of the filling after slow stewing.
Beef kidney
Adds deeper beefy flavour and a firmer, meatier texture to the filling.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy savouriness to the filling.
Eggs
Hard-boiled and sliced, they add richness and body to the filling.
Oysters
Contribute a briny, savoury flavour through their liquor, which seasons the filling.

The step that matters

Placing the pie in the hottest part of the oven until the crust is set. Starting hot sets the pastry quickly so its structure holds and the filling does not soak it. Moving to a cooler part then lets the filling heat through gently while the crust browns evenly without burning.

“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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