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Beef-Steak Pie

A savory pie filled with sliced beef steak and bullock’s kidney, wrapped in puff pastry and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Beef-Steak Pie

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 ↓

Beef-Steak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pastry

  1. Roll the puff pastry to ¼ inch thick.

  2. Invert the pie dish.

  3. Cut the pastry to fit the underside of the dish.

  4. Roll out the remaining pastry and cut a 1-inch wide band.

  5. Wet the edge of the pie dish.

  6. Place the pastry band around the dish.

Fill the pie

  1. Cut the beef into thin strips.

  2. Dip the strips in flour.

  3. Season the strips with pepper and salt.

  4. Wrap each strip around a small piece of fat.

  5. Layer the beef and kidney pieces in the pie dish, forming a dome.

  6. Pour in the water.

Cover and bake

  1. Wet the edges of the pastry lining the dish.

  2. Place the cover over the dish.

  3. Press the edges together.

  4. Trim the edges with a knife.

  5. Make a hole in the center of the pastry for steam to escape.

  6. Brush the crust with beaten egg.

  7. Decorate the crust with pastry trimmings.

  8. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for about 2 hours, reducing heat to 350°F (175°C) to cook the meat thoroughly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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
Forms the main filling and becomes tender during the long slow cooking.
Bullock's kidney
Adds a rich, deeply savoury flavour to the filling.
Puff paste
Forms a flaky, layered crust that bakes up crisp and golden.
Flour
Coats the beef strips so they brown lightly and help thicken the juices.

The step that matters

Reducing the oven heat after the first part of baking. The high initial heat sets and browns the crust, while the lower temperature lets the meat cook through gently without drying out or toughening. Skipping the reduction risks a burnt crust with undercooked meat.

“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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