Name: Meat Pie and Patties
Ingredients: 10 oz. beef steak or skirt; 2 oz. bullock’s kidney; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; Water; Short paste (see page 20)

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Pie and Patties

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 the filling

Cut the meat into thin pieces.
Mix flour, salt, and pepper on a plate and dip the meat into it.
Place the meat in a pie dish and half fill the dish with water.

Assemble and bake

Wet the edge of the dish, cut a strip of pastry, and place it around the edge.
Dampen the strip of pastry and cover the pie with the remaining pastry.
Trim off the rough edges with a sharp knife.
Make a hole in the center for steam to escape, decorate as desired.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes, then reduce to 300°F (150°C) and cook 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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together10,677 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steak or skirt: Provides the meat that becomes tender during the long, slow braise in the pie.
Bullock's kidney: Adds rich, savory flavor and body to the meat filling.
Flour: Coats the meat and thickens the juices into a light gravy.
Short paste: Forms the crisp, browned crust that encloses the filling.

“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.