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Beefsteak Pie

A savory pie filled with sliced beef, kidneys, and hard-boiled eggs, topped with pastry and served with Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Beefsteak Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a pie dish, arrange the beef, kidneys, and hard-boiled eggs in alternate rows.

  3. Season each layer with salt, pepper, parsley, and chives.

  4. Pour the consomme over the arranged ingredients.

Pastry and bake

  1. Create a border with the pastry around the top of the dish, wetting it to adhere.

  2. Cover the pie with more pastry, glaze the surface with beaten egg, and make a hole in the center.

  3. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown.

  4. Pour Espagnole Sauce into the pie before serving.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Pepper + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,885 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Beef + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Fillet of beef
Forms the main meaty filling that becomes tender during the long, gentle bake.
Kidneys
Adds a rich, strongly savoury flavour and a firm, meaty texture to the filling.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add body and a mild, creamy richness that balances the savoury meat.
Consomme
Provides moisture and savoury flavour, keeping the filling from drying out as it bakes.
Pastry
Forms a sealed crust that traps steam and moisture inside the pie.
Egg
Glazing with beaten egg promotes browning on the pastry surface.

The step that matters

Covering and sealing the pastry. A tight seal between the border and lid keeps steam inside so the filling cooks through and stays moist. The hole in the centre lets excess steam escape so the pastry does not turn soggy or burst.

Swap the chive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, pepper, parsley, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Chivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, pepper, parsley, sauce. 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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