Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Meat Pies and Puddings
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a frying pan, stir up the stock and scrape it with a spoon.
Pour the gravy over the meat in a pie dish.
Add the chopped onion, salt, pepper, and parsley to the meat.
Assemble the pie
Roll out a thin strip of pastry, about ⅛ inch thick.
Grease the rim of the pie dish with butter.
Cover the rim of the pie dish with the pastry.
Moisten the rim with a little water.
Roll out another piece of pastry, about ¼ inch thick.
Cover the pie with the pastry.
Pile the meat in the center.
Press the crust onto the rim.
Trim the edges with a knife.
Crimp the edges with a fork, ensuring not to push the pastry away from the dish.
Make a small opening in the top of the pie for steam to escape.
Glaze and bake
Optionally, glaze the top with egg yolk.
Bake for about 1.5 hours.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Steak
- Forms the main body of the filling and browns to add savory flavor as it cooks.
- Onion
- Adds aroma and a mild sweetness that balances the savory meat.
- Pastry
- Forms the crust that encloses the filling and bakes into a crisp, flaky layer.
- Egg yolk
- Gives the crust a glossy, golden browned surface when brushed on top.
The step that matters
Make a small opening in the top of the pie for steam to escape.. The meat and gravy release steam as they heat. Without a vent, that pressure can build inside the sealed crust and split it or push the lid apart during baking.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, parsley, butter, egg):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, butter, egg. 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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