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Beef-steak Pie

A pie filled with seasoned beef steak, shallots, mushroom ketchup, and gravy, topped with crust and baked.

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

Why it works: Shallot and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,982 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beef-steak Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steaks into small pieces and season with pepper and salt.

  2. Chop the shallots and mix with half the seasoning.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the bottom of a pie dish with some seasoning, then add a layer of steaks.

  2. Continue layering with seasoning and steaks until the dish is full.

  3. Add the mushroom ketchup and gravy or red port.

  4. Cover with pie crust and bake for 2 hours.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Shallot + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together476 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steaks
Supplies the meat and savoury flavour that the whole filling is built on.
Shallots
Add a mild sweetness and aromatic depth to the filling.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the meat.
Gravy or red port
Provides liquid that keeps the filling moist and adds richness.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling so it cooks in its own steam and browns on top.

The step that matters

Layering the seasoning through the steaks. Seasoning is spread between each layer of meat rather than added only on top, so the salt and pepper reach the whole filling. Unevenly seasoned layers taste bland in some bites and too strong in others.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, mushroom, ketchup. 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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