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Beefsteak Pie

A pie filled with seasoned beefsteaks and broth, topped with a thick crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beefsteak 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. Take well-hung beefsteaks and gently pound them 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 and fill your pie dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add crust around the edge and one inch below it.

  2. Pour in the water or broth.

  3. Cover with a thick crust.

  4. 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.

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

Beefsteaks
Provide the meat that becomes tender and flavourful during the long baking.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture as it melts into the meat during baking.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and gives the pie its structure and golden browning.
Water or broth
Creates moisture and steam so the filling stays juicy in the oven.

The step that matters

Cover with a thick crust. The crust seals in the liquid and steam; if it is thin or has gaps, the juices can escape and the filling may dry out.

“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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