Name: Beef Pie
Ingredients: roast beef or beef steak; biscuit dough; cold potatoes; salt; pepper; butter; cold gravy

Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Beef 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

Cut the roast beef or beef steak into small pieces.
Line the sides of a deep dish with thinly rolled biscuit dough.

Assemble

Layer the meat in the dish, followed by slices of cold potatoes, salt, pepper, bits of butter, and cold gravy if available.
Repeat the layering until the dish is nearly full.
Cover with biscuit dough and cut a slit in the top.

Bake

Bake at 400°F (200°C) 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.

Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Biscuit + potatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together137 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Biscuit + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together841 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef or beef steak: Provides the savory meat base that forms the filling's main body.
Biscuit dough: Forms the lining and top crust, browning and setting as it bakes.
Cold potatoes: Adds starch and body to the filling, helping it hold together when sliced.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the filling, carrying flavor through the layers.
Cold gravy: Adds moisture and savory flavor throughout the layered filling.