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Meat Patties

A baked meat patty made with flour, dripping or lard, beef steak, water, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Patties

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Grease some patty pans.

  3. Mix pepper and nearly all the salt on a plate.

  4. Cut the beef steak into small squares.

  5. Mix the beef squares with the seasoning.

  6. In a bowl, combine flour and the remaining salt.

  7. Rub the dripping or lard lightly into the flour with your fingers.

  8. Gradually add water to form a light, firm paste.

  9. Mix the paste with a knife.

  10. Turn the paste onto a floured board.

  11. Roll the paste out to about ¼ inch thick.

  12. Cut the paste into rounds.

  13. Make two rounds for each pan.

Fill and shape

  1. Place one round in each pan.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture to each pan.

  3. Add a little water to each pan.

  4. Wet the edges of the paste.

  5. Place another round on top.

  6. Press the edges together.

  7. Notch the edges with a knife.

  8. Make a hole in the top to let steam escape.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the tops with milk.

  2. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden.

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

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

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and beef barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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 paste that structures the pastry casing around the filling.
Dripping or lard
Rubbed into flour to add fat, giving the pastry a short, tender texture.
Beef steak
Forms the savoury meat filling inside the pastry.
Water
Hydrates the flour so it binds into a light, firm paste.

The step that matters

Pressing and sealing the edges. If the edges are not wet and firmly pressed together, the pastry can separate or leak during baking, letting juices escape and the filling dry out.

“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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