Name: Rump or Beef Steak Pie
Ingredients: 5 or 6 beef or rump steaks; pepper; coarse sea salt; ½ cup weak gravy or water; 1 shallot, finely chopped; pie crust

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rump or Beef Steak Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Tenderize the steaks with a rolling pin and season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Line the edge of a pie dish with pie crust.
Place the steaks in the dish and add ½ cup of weak gravy or water and the chopped shallot.
Cover with a thick pie crust lid.
If desired, add 12 oysters after removing the gills.
Brush the top with egg and decorate with leaves of pie crust.

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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).