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Beef Steak and Mushroom Pie

A savory pie filled with sliced beef steak, kidney, and mushrooms, encased in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Beef Steak and Mushroom Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

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

  2. Remove fat and skin from the meat and kidney, then slice thinly.

  3. Place a slice of kidney on each slice of meat, dip in the seasoning, and roll into small rolls.

  4. Layer the rolls in a dish, add chopped mushrooms, and top with remaining meat.

  5. Pour stock or water into the dish until three-quarters full.

Top and bake

  1. Roll out Rough Puff Pastry to ⅓ inch thick, larger than the dish.

  2. Cut a strip from the edge of the pastry and moisten the dish edge with water.

  3. Attach the pastry strip to the dish edge, then cover with the remaining pastry and seal the edges.

  4. Trim the pastry edge with a floured knife, decorate the top, brush with egg, and cut a steam hole in the center.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) until golden.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + mushroomtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Rough puff pastry
Forms a flaky, golden crust that encloses the filling.
Flour
Coats the meat and thickens the juices as the pie bakes.
Beef steak
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the filling.
Kidney
Adds a rich, deeply savory flavor and firm texture to the filling.
Chopped mushrooms
Adds moisture and earthy savory flavor to the filling.
Egg
Brushed on the pastry to promote even browning and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Cut a steam hole in the center. Without a vent, steam from the stock and meat builds pressure under the pastry, which can lift or split the crust and leak juices.

“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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