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Cottage Pie

A baked pie of minced cold meat, onion, parsley, seasoning, sauce, and mashed potato topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cottage Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the onion finely.

  2. Fry the chopped onion in a little dripping until tender.

  3. Mince the cold meat and parsley.

  4. Mix the minced meat, parsley, and onion together.

  5. Add seasoning and sauce to the mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the mixture into a pie dish and add water.

  2. Cover the pie with a thick layer of mashed potatoes.

  3. Smooth the mashed potato layer with a knife dipped in hot water.

  4. Mark the top into squares with a fork.

  5. Place a few pieces of dripping on top of the potato layer.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes until thoroughly hot.

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.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the pie its savoury body.
Cold potatoes
Mashed into a topping that browns and crisps in the oven.
Onion
Softened by frying, it adds sweetness and aroma to the filling.
Sauce or catsup
Adds moisture and tangy flavour to the minced meat.
Dripping (in the method)
Fat that helps the onion soften and encourages browning on the potato top.

The step that matters

Smoothing the potato layer. A thick, evenly smoothed potato layer seals the filling and helps the surface brown well in the oven. Dipping the knife in hot water keeps the potato from tearing as it is spread.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, sauce, potato):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, sauce, potato. 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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