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Beef-steak Pie

A pie made with sliced beef steaks, seasoned with pepper, salt, shallot, and fat, baked with crust and broth.

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

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 ↓

Beef-steak 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 steak

  1. Take well-hung beef steaks and beat them gently with a circular steak beater.

  2. Season the steaks with pepper, coarse sea salt, and minced shallot.

  3. Roll each slice with a piece of fat.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill your pie dish with the rolled slices.

  2. Add some crust around the edge and an inch below it.

  3. Pour in the water or broth.

  4. Cover with a thick crust.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

  3. Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,103 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

Beef steaks
Provide the meat that forms the filling and becomes tender during baking.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture as it melts into the rolled slices during baking.
Pie crust
Forms the enclosing pastry that holds in the filling and steam while baking.
Water or broth
Adds liquid to the pie, creating moisture and gravy as the filling cooks.

The step that matters

Cover with a thick crust. A thick top crust must seal well around the edge so steam and juices stay inside. If it leaks, the filling dries out and the juices escape while the meat cooks.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper. 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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