Name: Steak Pie
Ingredients: 2 lbs rump steak; Salt and pepper to taste; Cayenne pepper to taste; 2 or 3 mutton kidneys, skinned and cut in pieces (optional); 1 dozen mushrooms, chopped; A few eschalots, chopped (optional); 1 cup water or stock; Pastry for covering the pie

Why it works: Pepper and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Steak Pie

Ingredients

2 lbs rump steak
Salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste
2 or 3 mutton kidneys, skinned and cut in pieces (optional)
1 dozen mushrooms, chopped
A few eschalots, chopped (optional)
1 cup water or stock
Pastry for covering the pie

Directions

Prepare the meat

Remove the skin and most of the fat from the rump steak, then beat it with a rolling pin.
Cut the steak into nice pieces.
Season the meat with salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper, then sprinkle over the pieces.

Assemble and bake

Place the seasoned meat in a pie dish.
If using, add the chopped mutton kidneys.
Add the chopped mushrooms and eschalots if desired.
Pour in the water or stock.
Cover the pie with pastry, glaze it, and bake for 1 hour.

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.

Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mutton + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together685 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 meat, which becomes tender during the long baking with the added liquid.
Mutton kidneys: Add a rich, savoury flavour and a firmer, meatier texture to the filling.
Mushrooms: Add moisture and earthy flavour that deepens as they cook in the filling.
Water or stock: Provides moisture that gently cooks the meat and forms the savoury gravy in the pie.

“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.