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Meat and Potato Pie

A pie made with sliced tinned mutton, potatoes, onions, and gravy, baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat and Potato Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton into small thin slices.

  2. Parboil and slice the potatoes and onions.

Layer and bake

  1. Line the bottom of a pie dish with potato.

  2. Cover with a layer of mutton and a few slices of onion, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  3. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with a layer of potato.

  4. Pour in the gravy.

  5. Cover with greased paper and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1.5 hours.

  6. Remove the paper 30 minutes before serving to allow the surface to brown.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,531 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

Mutton
Forms the meaty filling and provides most of the savoury flavour as it cooks in the layers.
Potatoes
Parboiled slices form the base and top layers, giving body and a soft, starchy texture.
Onions
Sliced between the layers, they add sweetness and aroma as they soften during baking.
Gravy
Poured in to moisten the layers, keeping the mutton and potato from drying out in the oven.

The step that matters

Remove the paper 30 minutes before serving. Covered baking traps steam and keeps the surface pale. Uncovering for the final 30 minutes lets dry heat evaporate surface moisture and brown the top, so it should not be skipped.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, potato, pepper. 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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