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Meat Pie

A savory pie of cubed meat, onions, potatoes, and a biscuit or pie crust topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Meat Pie

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.

Make the filling

  1. Cover the meat with boiling water and add the onions.

  2. Cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the onions.

  4. Thicken the stock with flour mixed to a paste with cold water.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Add the sliced potatoes to the meat mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish.

  2. Cover with biscuit dough or pie crust.

  3. If using pie crust, cut several slits to allow steam to escape.

  4. Use a pie funnel or inverted cup to prevent sogginess.

  5. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Onion + biscuittop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together428 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Flour + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + biscuittop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Provides the main savory body and flavour of the filling as it cooks slowly in the stock.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy that holds the filling together.
Potatoes
Add starch and body to the filling, soaking up some of the stock as it bakes.
Biscuit dough or pie crust
Forms the topping that seals in the filling and browns in the hot oven.

The step that matters

Use a pie funnel or inverted cup. The filling is wet, so the crust sits on steam and can turn soggy underneath. A raised central vent keeps the crust off the liquid and lets steam escape.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, flour, pepper, potato, biscuit):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, pepper, potato, biscuit. 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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