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Meat Pie

A layered pie of cold meat, onion, potatoes, gravy, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Meat Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble

  1. Layer thin slices of cold meat in a baking dish.

  2. Add grated onion, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add a layer of thin-sliced potatoes.

  4. Repeat the layers until the dish is full.

  5. Pour cold gravy, tomato sauce, or soup stock over the layers.

  6. Cover with pastry rolled to ½ inch thick.

Bake

  1. Bake for about 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. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  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 meat
Forms the main filling and supplies most of the savory flavor.
Potatoes
Add starchy body to the layers and soak up some of the sauce as they bake.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as it softens in the oven.
Pastry
Seals the dish and browns in the oven, creating a crisp top layer.

The step that matters

Pour cold gravy, tomato sauce, or soup stock over the layers. The liquid needs to reach down through the layers before baking. It keeps the filling moist, and it helps the potatoes cook through without drying out or scorching under the pastry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, potato, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, potato, tomato. 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.

More meat pie recipes

Mince Filling 11Mince 10Cold 7French 7Crust 5Pastry 5 See all 92 →

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