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Beef-steak Pie

A pie filled with seasoned beef steak slices, shallot, and broth, topped with a crust.

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

Why it works: Beef and pepper 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 the steak

  1. Take well‑aged beef steaks and gently beat them with a circular steak beater.

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

  3. Roll each slice of steak with a piece of fat and place them in a pie dish.

Bake the pie

  1. Add a crust around the edge and one inch below it, then pour in 1 cup of water or broth.

  2. Cover the pie with a thick crust and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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

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

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

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

  3. Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,103 recipes

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

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Shallot + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steaks
Provides the meat that becomes tender and flavourful during the long bake.
Fat (e.g., butter or lard)
Adds richness and moisture to the lean beef as it melts during baking.
1 cup water or broth
Creates moisture in the pie dish so the filling stays juicy while baking.
Pie crust
Encloses the filling so steam stays inside and the meat cooks gently.

The step that matters

Covering the pie with a thick crust and baking. A tight, well-sealed crust traps steam so the beef cooks in its own juices rather than drying out. Gaps in the seal let moisture escape and leave the meat tough.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Shallotthe original

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