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Meat Patties

A baked pastry-covered beef patty with gravy or water, served hot or cold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Meat Patties

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl.

  2. Finely chop the beef steak.

  3. Dip the chopped steak into the seasoning.

Assemble the patties

  1. Line patty pans with the pastry.

  2. Place a small amount of the seasoned meat into each pan.

  3. Add a little hot water or gravy.

  4. Cover with pastry.

  5. Press the edges well.

  6. Decorate as desired.

  7. Make a hole in the center.

  8. Brush the pastry with milk to glaze.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

  2. Reduce the temperature to 300°F (150°C).

  3. Cook for another 20 minutes to ensure the meat is thoroughly cooked.

  4. Serve hot or cold.

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

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

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Beef steak
Provides the meat filling, which cooks through during baking.
Short or flaky pastry
Forms the case and lid that enclose the filling and brown in the oven.
Flour
Lightly coats the meat and helps thicken the juices around it.
Hot gravy or water
Adds moisture so the meat stays juicy as it cooks.

The step that matters

Pressing the edges well. A tight seal keeps the juices and steam inside the pastry, so the filling stays moist instead of drying out while it bakes.

“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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