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Raised Pie

A meat pie with a raised crust made from flour, butter, suet, milk, water, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Raised Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Rub the butter into the flour and add the salt.

  2. Melt the suet in a pan, then add the milk and water and bring to a boil.

  3. Gradually stir the boiling mixture into the flour until a smooth paste forms.

  4. Knead the dough lightly, cut off about a quarter, and keep it warm.

Shape and fill

  1. Shape the remaining dough into a ball and work out the center, making the sides high.

  2. Fill the center with pie meat and wet the upper edge of the case.

  3. Roll out the reserved dough to cover the pie, press the edges together, and trim neatly.

  4. Pinch the edges all around and make a hole in the center.

  5. Decorate the top with pastry shapes and brush with beaten egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Let the pie stand in a cool place until firm.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1½ hours.

  3. Before serving, fill the pie with well‑seasoned gravy.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the pastry its structure and holds the pie's shape.
Butter or lard
Coats flour particles to tenderize the dough and adds richness and flaky texture.
Refined suet
Adds fat that makes the hot-water crust short, tender and moist after baking.
Milk and water
Hydrates the flour and melted suet into a pliable dough and adds a little richness.

The step that matters

Working the boiling liquid into the flour. Pouring the liquid in gradually while it is boiling gelatinizes the starch and lets the dough form a smooth, pliable paste. Adding it all at once or letting it cool can leave lumps and a crumbly, hard-to-shape crust.

“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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