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Steak Pie with Veal Stuffing

A savory pie made with beef steak and a veal-based stuffing, topped with a flaky pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Steak Pie with Veal Stuffing

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the beef steak into strips or slices.

  2. Mix the seasoning on a plate and dip the meat in the seasoning.

  3. Mix the bread crumbs, suet, parsley, herbs, lemon rind, salt, and pepper in a bowl for the stuffing. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add enough to bind the stuffing together.

  4. Roll the mixture into balls.

  5. Place the meat and stuffing balls in a pie dish and add a little cold water for gravy.

Make the flaky paste

  1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl for the flaky paste. Add water to form a light, firm paste.

  2. On a floured surface, roll out the paste thinly.

  3. Divide the lard into three parts and spread one part on the paste.

  4. Flour the paste, fold it in thirds, turn it, and roll it out again. Repeat the folding and rolling process two more times.

  5. Roll the paste out slightly larger than the top of the pie dish.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cut off some strips and grease the edge of the dish. Lay the strips on the edge, wet them, place the top on, press the edges together, trim, and notch with a knife.

  2. Brush the pie with the remaining egg. Decorate with leaves.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour. Serve hot or cold.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the paste that holds the pie together.
Lard
Folded into the paste in layers to create a flaky, tender texture.
Beef steak
Provides the savoury meat filling that cooks until tender.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the stuffing balls together.
Egg
Binds the stuffing and gives the top crust a browned, glossy finish.

The step that matters

Folding and rolling the lard into the paste. Keeping the lard in distinct layers, not fully worked into the dough, creates separate flaky sheets as it melts in the oven. Rolling too hard or warm lard can blend it in and make the crust dense.

“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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