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Vegetable Pie

A baked pie with sliced potatoes, tomatoes, onions, soaked tapioca, spices, butter, and a wholemeal crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a sharp oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble the pie

  1. Layer the sliced potatoes, tomatoes, and Spanish onions in a pie dish.

  2. Sprinkle soaked tapioca, pepper, salt, and butter between the layers.

  3. Add enough water or bean broth to create gravy.

  4. Cover with wholemeal crust.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour.

  2. For a heartier pie, add soaked and boiled haricot beans.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk and body of the pie, becoming tender as they bake.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that blend into the gravy as the pie bakes.
Spanish onions
Add sweetness and savoury aroma that deepen during baking.
Soaked tapioca
Thickens the cooking liquid into a gravy as its starch gelatinises in the heat.

The step that matters

Adding enough water or bean broth. The tapioca starch needs enough liquid to hydrate and thicken into a gravy. Too little liquid leaves the layers dry and the starch unable to set the sauce properly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, 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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