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Beefsteak Pbe

A pastry dish of thinly sliced beef rolled with suet or bacon, parsley, herbs, and kidney, baked with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pbe

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rolls

  1. Cut the steak into very thin slices.

  2. Place a small piece of beef suet or fat bacon on each slice, along with a small amount of minced parsley, pepper, coarse sea salt, and powdered sweet herbs.

  3. Roll up each slice into a mouthful-sized roll.

Layer and fill the dish

  1. Rub a pie dish with shallot.

  2. Layer the rolls in the dish, followed by a layer of boiled kidney cut into thin slices, and repeat until the dish is full.

  3. Dust with pepper and salt.

  4. Pour in enough savoury gravy or aspic to fill the dish.

Cover and bake

  1. Cover with shortcrust pastry and glaze with egg.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

  5. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Steak
Forms the main meat filling, rolled into bite-sized pieces that cook through in the dish.
Beef suet or fat bacon
Adds fat that keeps the lean steak moist and rich in flavour during baking.
Savoury gravy or aspic jelly
Fills the gaps with liquid that keeps the filling moist and sets as it cools.
Short crust pastry
Forms a sealed crust that holds in moisture and gives a crisp, golden top.
Egg
Glazes the pastry so it browns evenly and looks glossy when baked.

The step that matters

Pour in enough gravy or aspic to fill the dish. Liquid must fill the gaps between the rolls so the meat stays moist and the filling sets properly rather than drying out or leaving air pockets.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Dillfits less well

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