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Meat and Potato Pie

A savory pie filled with browned meat, onions, potatoes, and broth, topped with a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Meat and Potato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a pan, brown the meat and onion over medium heat.

  3. Add the flour and stir for 1 minute.

  4. Pour in the beef broth and bring to a simmer.

  5. Add the diced potatoes, salt, and pepper; cook until potatoes are tender.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a pie dish and cover with the pie crust.

  2. Cut slits in the crust to allow steam to escape.

  3. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides the main savoury flavour and substance of the filling.
Potatoes
Add bulk and a soft, starchy body to the filling as they cook.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it browns with the meat.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a gravy that holds the filling together.
Beef broth
Supplies liquid and savoury flavour that cooks the potatoes and forms the gravy.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and browns in the oven to form the top layer.

The step that matters

Add the flour and stir for 1 minute. Flour must be cooked briefly in the fat and meat juices before the broth goes in. This cooks out its raw taste and lets it thicken the liquid smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, flour, 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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