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Beef-Steak Pie

A savory pie filled with seasoned beef, onions, and mushrooms, encased in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Beef-Steak Pie

Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Beef-Steak 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

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

  2. Cut the beef into small pieces and season.

  3. Sauté onions and mushrooms until soft.

  4. Combine beef with sautéed vegetables.

Assemble and bake

  1. Fill the pie crust with the beef mixture.

  2. Cover with another layer of pie crust and seal edges.

  3. Bake for 45 minutes or until 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.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 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
Provides the main meat filling and rich savoury flavour once cooked.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and bakes into a crisp, golden pastry casing.
Onions
Soften when sautéed, adding sweetness and depth to the filling.
Mushrooms
Release moisture as they cook, adding earthy flavour and body to the filling.

The step that matters

Seal the pie edges. A tight seal keeps the filling's juices inside while baking, so the filling stays moist and the pastry does not leak or dry out.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mushroom. 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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