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Raised Vegetable Pie

A baked pie filled with butter beans, mushrooms, onions, and tapioca, topped with a dough crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Raised Vegetable Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cook the butter beans and onion in stock or water until soft.

  2. Drain the beans.

  3. Mash the beans with 1 oz of nut butter and a sprinkling of herbs.

  4. Peel, wash and drain the mushrooms.

  5. Fry the mushrooms in the remaining butter.

  6. Let the mushrooms cool.

Make the dough and assemble

  1. Make the dough by mixing 1 lb of flour, 4 oz of nut butter, a pinch of salt, and enough water to form a stiff dough.

  2. Roll out the dough.

  3. Line a greased raised pie mold with the dough.

  4. Fill the mold with a thin layer of tapioca.

  5. Add the mushrooms, onion, and beans to the mold.

  6. Pour a little of the seasoned bean stock mixed with Marmite over the filling.

  7. Cover the filling with the remaining dough.

  8. Decorate the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 40 minutes.

  2. Let the pie cool slightly.

  3. Carefully turn out the pie.

  4. Serve hot or cold with salad.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  3. Beans + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together411 recipes

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

  4. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Beans + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter beans
Provide the bulk and soft, starchy body of the filling once mashed.
Mushrooms
Add savory flavor and a tender, meaty texture to the filling.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the stiff dough its structure.
Nut butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in both filling and dough.
Tapioca
Absorbs liquid from the filling and helps it set as it cools.
Marmite
Adds concentrated savory, umami depth to the seasoned stock.

The step that matters

Let the pie cool slightly before turning out. As the pie cools, the starch in the tapioca and filling thickens and sets. Turning it out too early can cause the filling to slump and the crust to break.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, beans, mushroom, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beans, mushroom, flour. 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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