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Beefsteak Pie

A pie filled with sliced beefsteak, seasoned, covered with pastry, baked until the crust rises.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beefsteak Pie

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 meat

  1. Cut the beefsteak into thin slices, about 3 inches long and wide.

  2. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper on a plate.

  3. Dip the meat slices in the mixture.

  4. Place the meat in a pie dish that is small enough to allow the meat to rise in the center.

  5. Sprinkle the remaining seasoning between the layers of meat.

  6. Pour enough boiling water into the dish to fill it.

Make the crust

  1. Roll out the pastry to a suitable thickness.

  2. Invert a pie dish of the same size over the pastry and cut around it, leaving a ½ inch margin.

  3. Line the edge of the dish with pastry trimmings.

  4. Cover the meat with the pastry.

  5. Moisten and press the edges together.

  6. Notch the edges at intervals.

  7. Make a hole in the center of the top.

  8. Decorate the top with leaves.

  9. Brush the top with the egg yolk.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the pastry rises and sets.

  2. Reduce the temperature and cook slowly for about 2 hours.

  3. Before serving, pour in a little beef gravy or hot water seasoned with salt and pepper through the hole in the top.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Beefsteak
Forms the main filling and becomes tender during the long slow cooking.
Flour
Coats the meat slices, helping the juices thicken into a gravy.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the top, it promotes browning and a glossy finish.
Short crust pastry
Forms the enclosing crust that seals in the meat and juices.

The step that matters

Pour in the water before covering. Boiling water added to the dish before the pastry goes on creates juices and helps the meat stay moist during the long bake. Pouring it in after sealing would not reach the meat evenly.

“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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