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Pasty of Beef or Mutton

A savory pie with beef or mutton, sugar, port wine, vinegar, butter, and spices, baked with a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pasty of Beef or Mutton

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the meat

  1. Bone the meat and beat it well with a rolling pin.

  2. Rub the meat with sugar and pour port and vinegar over it.

  3. Let it marinate for five days and nights.

  4. Wash and dry the meat, then season it with pepper, Jamaica pepper, nutmeg, and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the meat in a dish and spread butter over it.

  2. Cover with a crust around the edges and a thick top crust.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

Make the gravy

  1. Set bones in a pan with just enough water to cover them and add port, pepper, and salt for gravy.

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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Beef + port winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef or mutton
Provides the rich meat that becomes tender during the long marinating and slow baking.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar and port in the marinade.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade gently softens the meat's texture over the long soak.
Port wine
Adds depth and sweetness to the marinade and flavour to the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the meat moist and rich during slow baking.

The step that matters

Marinating for five days and nights. Acid and sugar in the marinade slowly work into the meat, softening its fibres and building flavour. Keeping the meat fully covered and cold throughout the soak helps it stay safe and evenly seasoned.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, port wine, vinegar, butter, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, port wine, vinegar, butter, 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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