Why it works: Meat and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,777 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Raised Pies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Cut the meat and bacon into small pieces.
Season the mixture with ⅔ tablespoon of coarse sea salt and ⅓ tablespoon of black pepper.
Assemble and bake
Pack the meat mixture tightly into the pie crust.
Bake the pie slowly until cooked through.
Finish
After baking, pour in some liquid jelly while the pie is hot.
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.
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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat
- Forms the bulk of the filling and provides the main savory flavor.
- Fat bacon
- Adds fat that keeps the meat moist and rich during slow baking.
- Liquid jelly
- Fills the gaps after baking and sets as it cools, adding moisture to the pie.
The step that matters
Bake the pie slowly until cooked through. Slow, gentle heat cooks the dense meat evenly through to the centre without drying the outside. Rushing with high heat can leave the middle undercooked or the meat tough and dry.
“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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