Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Cornish Pasties
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
Cut the buttock steak or beef skirt into small pieces.
Wash, peel, and cut the potatoes into small pieces.
Peel and finely chop the onion.
Make the pastry
In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add the dripping and rub it into the flour with your hands.
Mix in enough cold water to form a stiff paste.
Flour a board and turn the paste onto it.
Roll the paste out to a thickness of about ¼ inch.
Cut the paste into squares about 6 or 7 inches wide.
Fill and bake
Place some meat and potato in the center of each square, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little onion.
Fold the paste over the filling and press the edges together to seal.
Grease a baking tin and place the pasties on it.
Bake in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.
Serve the pasties on a dish.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the pastry dough that encloses the filling.
- Dripping
- Adds fat that makes the pastry rich and tender as it is rubbed into the flour.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the pastry rises and lightens.
- Beef skirt or buttock steak
- Provides the meat filling, which becomes tender and flavourful as it cooks inside the pastry.
- Potatoes
- Add starch and body to the filling, keeping it moist and hearty as it bakes.
- Onion
- Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the filling as it cooks.
The step that matters
Mixing in the cold water to a stiff paste. Too much water makes the dough sticky and hard to handle, while too little leaves it crumbly and unable to seal. A stiff, cohesive dough keeps the filling enclosed during baking.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, flour, pepper):
- Chivefits better
- Carrotfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, flour, 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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