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Beef-steak Pie

A pie filled with sliced beef steaks, seasoned with pepper, salt, shallot, and fat, baked with 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: 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 filling

  1. Gently beat the beef steaks with a circular steak beater.

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

  3. Roll each slice of steak with a piece of fat and fill your pie dish.

  4. Place some crust on the edge and about an inch below it.

  5. Add 1 cup of water or broth to the dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cover with a thick layer of crust and 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
Forms the main filling, cooking through and turning tender inside the crust.
Fat
Melts during baking, adding moisture and richness to the rolled beef.
Shallot
Adds sharp aromatic flavor that mellows as the pie bakes.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and holds in juices and steam while it bakes.

The step that matters

Sealing the top crust to the edge. A tight seal traps steam and meat juices inside the pie, keeping the filling moist while it cooks. Gaps let liquid escape and can leave the filling drier.

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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