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Roast Beef Pie with Potato Crust

A baked dish of roast beef in gravy topped with a mashed potato crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Roast Beef Pie with Potato Crust

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a stew pan, combine sliced beef, gravy, butter, onion, salt, pepper, and enough water to create gravy.

  3. Thicken the mixture by adding flour and simmer gently to avoid burning.

Make the potato crust

  1. Boil potatoes until tender, then mash them smooth with milk and butter.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the stewed meat to a baking dish and layer the mashed potatoes on top.

  2. Brush the potato layer with beaten egg.

  3. Bake in the oven until the top is golden brown.

Serve

  1. Serve with tomato sauce or Worcestershire sauce.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef
Provides the main meat filling that becomes tender when gently simmered in gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so the meat mixture holds together rather than running off the plate.
Potatoes
Form the mashed topping, which sets and browns to make a crisp-edged crust.
Egg
Brushed on the potato layer, it promotes browning and a glossy golden top.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to both the stewed filling and the mashed potatoes.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens into the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmering the thickened filling gently. Flour thickens the gravy only when heated, but high heat can scorch the bottom of the pan and give a burnt taste. Keeping the simmer gentle lets the starch thicken evenly without sticking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, pepper, flour, potato, milk, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, flour, potato, milk, egg. 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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