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Beef Steak Pie

A savory pie filled with thinly sliced steak and kidneys, topped with a buttery pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Beef Steak Pie

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 meat

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of pepper.

  3. Dip the steak slices in the seasoning mixture.

  4. Layer the seasoned steak in a pie dish.

  5. Skin and slice the mutton kidneys, removing the fat, and dip them in the seasoning.

  6. Continue layering the meat until the dish is full, piling it high in the center.

  7. Add some water to the dish for gravy.

Make the crust

  1. In a separate bowl, mix ½ lb of flour with ½ teaspoon of baking powder.

  2. Cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.

  3. Add the beaten egg and enough water to form a dough.

  4. Roll out the dough and cover the pie, sealing the edges.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes or until golden 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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Steak
Forms the main filling, providing the savoury meat that the pie is built around.
Mutton kidneys
Adds a rich, deeper meaty flavour to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the seasoning coating on the meat and gives structure to the crust dough.
Butter
Cut into the flour to create a short, flaky texture in the crust.
Egg
Binds the crust dough and helps it brown in the oven.
Baking powder
Gives the crust dough lift so it rises and turns lighter in the oven.

The step that matters

Sealing the crust edges. If the edges are not sealed well, steam and juices escape during baking and the crust can open or go soggy. A tight seal traps heat and moisture so the filling cooks through and the top sets properly.

“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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