Why it works: Potato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 851 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓
Steak and Kidney 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the filling and pastry
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Cut the steak and kidney into small pieces.
Prepare the pastry and line a pie dish.
Assemble and bake
Fill the pastry with the steak and kidney mixture.
Cover with another layer of pastry and seal the edges.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
Cook the sides
Boil the potatoes until tender.
Cook the yellow rice according to package instructions.
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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Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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 of the filling.
- Kidney
- Adds a rich, deep meaty flavour and a firmer bite to the filling.
- Pastry
- Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and bulk, becoming soft and tender as they cook.
- Yellow rice
- Adds starch and bulk as a side dish.
The step that matters
Seal the edges of the top pastry. A tight seal keeps juices and steam inside the pie, so the filling cooks through and stays moist. A leaky seal lets juices escape and can leave the filling dry.
“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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