Why it works: Mushroom and red wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 720 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓
Rump Steak Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the rump steak into pieces half the size of your hand, trimming off skin and sinews.
Chop the eschalots finely and mix with the pepper and salt.
Assemble and bake
Strew some of the mixture at the bottom of a dish, then add a layer of steak, followed by more mixture, repeating until the dish is full.
Add the mushroom catsup and gravy or red wine.
Cover with pie crust and bake for 2 hours.
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.
-
Mushroom + red winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together720 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
-
Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Pepper + red winetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,075 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rump steak
- Forms the main body of the pie and becomes tender during the long bake.
- Eschalots
- Add a mild, sweet onion-like flavour that seasons the meat throughout.
- Mushroom catsup
- Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the filling.
- Gravy or red wine
- Adds liquid that moistens the filling and carries flavour during baking.
The step that matters
Bake for 2 hours under the crust. Rump steak is a lean, tough cut that needs a long, gentle cook in moist conditions to break down its connective tissue. Covering the filling with crust keeps the liquid from evaporating too quickly, so the meat becomes tender rather than dry.
“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.
More steak pie recipes
You might also like
Mushroom Soup60 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.