Why it works: Pepper and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Beef-steak Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a fierce oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the beef
Trim off the coarse skin and excess fat from the steak.
Gently beat the beef with a rolling pin until tender, if it is tough.
Cut the beef into slices about the size of your hand.
Assemble the pie
Place the slices in a dish lined with pastry.
Season the meat with salt, pepper, or cayenne.
Add enough water to create gravy.
Cover the pie with pastry.
Brush the edges of the pastry with egg or cold water to seal.
Trim the edges of the pastry.
Cut a small slit in the center of the cover.
Decorate the pie as desired.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
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.
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Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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 filling and becomes tender when cooked slowly in gravy.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the crust, rising and turning flaky and golden in the oven.
- Egg
- Seals the pastry edges and helps the crust brown when brushed on top.
- Water
- Creates the gravy that keeps the meat moist during baking.
The step that matters
Beating the beef until tender. Tough rump steak needs its muscle fibres broken down before baking, since long gentle cooking alone may not soften it enough. Under-beating leaves chewy meat in the finished pie.
“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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