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Beef-steak Pie

A pie filled with seasoned rump steaks, fat, sliced mutton kidney, and broth, topped with a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Beef-steak Pie

Why it works: Pepper and beef 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

  1. Tenderize the rump steaks gently with a rolling pin.

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

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the seasoned steaks in a dish with pieces of fat and sliced mutton kidney.

  2. Fill the dish and add water or broth.

  3. Cover with pie crust, sealing the edges and making a thick top crust.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  4. Shallot + beeftop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,103 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steaks
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender and savory as it cooks through.
Fat (beef or mutton)
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the meat juicy during baking.
Mutton kidney
Adds deep, rich meaty flavor to the filling.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling and forms a sealed top that traps steam and moisture.

The step that matters

Sealing the crust. A tight seal keeps steam and juices inside the pie, so the meat cooks in its own moisture instead of drying out.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, beef, mutton. 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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