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Podovies, or Beef Patties

Beef patties made with shredded underdone beef, fat, pepper, salt, shallot or onion, and a butter, egg, milk dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Podovies, or Beef Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Shred the underdone beef and mix with a little fat.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and finely chopped shallot or onion.

Make the dough

  1. Make a plain dough with butter, egg, and milk.

  2. Roll the dough thin and cut into shapes like apple puffs.

Fill and fry

  1. Fill each shape with the beef mixture and pinch the edges closed.

  2. Fry the patties until they are a nice brown color.

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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

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

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

Underdone dressed beef
Provides the savory, meaty filling that the pastry encloses.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dough, making it tender and flavorful.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
Milk
Moistens the dough so it can be rolled thin and shaped.
Shallot or onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the filling.

The step that matters

Frying the patties until nicely browned. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs a dry surface and enough heat. Pinching the edges closed firmly keeps the filling sealed so the patties brown evenly and do not leak fat into the pan.

Swap the shallot

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

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

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