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Beef-steak Pie

A pie filled with diced steak, shallots, pepper, salt, mushroom ketchup, and gravy or red port, topped with pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Beef-steak Pie

Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef-steak Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the steak into small pieces.

  2. Chop the shallots and mix with pepper and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Strew some seasoning over the bottom of the dish.

  2. Layer the steak and seasoning alternately until the dish is full.

  3. Add mushroom ketchup and gravy or red port.

  4. Cover with pie crust and bake for 2 hours.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  3. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Shallot + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together476 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Provides the meat that becomes tender during the long bake.
Shallots
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften into the filling.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savory, umami flavor to the filling.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and gives a golden, crisp top when baked.

The step that matters

Layering the steak and seasoning. Spreading the seasoning between layers distributes salt and pepper through the meat, so the filling is seasoned evenly rather than only on the surface.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, mushroom, ketchup):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mushroom, ketchup. 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.

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