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Potato Pasty

A baked dish of meat in weak broth or gravy topped with mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble

  1. Cut the meat into small pieces and place it at the bottom of a pan.

  2. Season with pepper and salt.

  3. Add the gravy and butter broken into small pieces.

  4. Cover with a layer of nicely mashed potatoes mixed with a little milk.

  5. Shape the surface decoratively.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 40 to 60 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown.

  2. Serve immediately with a napkin wrapped around it.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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. Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together293 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak or mutton cutlets
Provides the meat that gives the dish its savoury, rich flavour and body.
Weak broth or gravy
Adds moisture so the meat stays tender and the base stays juicy while baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the potato top brown.
Mashed potatoes
Forms a soft topping that sets and browns in the oven, sealing in the meat and liquid.

The step that matters

Bake until the potato top is golden brown. The potato layer needs enough oven time to brown, which adds flavour through browning reactions. Pulling it early leaves a pale, soft top, while overbaking can dry the broth and toughen the meat.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, butter):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, butter. 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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