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Beef Steak and Kidney Pie

A pie of sliced beef steak and ox kidney rolled together, covered with puff pastry, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 and Kidney Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steak into thin slices.

  2. Dip the slices in flour, salt, and pepper.

  3. Roll each slice with a piece of kidney and a small piece of fat.

  4. Arrange the rolls in a pudding dish and pour the water or stock over them.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with pastry, decorate as desired, and bake for 2 hours.

  2. Bake in a hot oven (400°F) for the first 30 minutes, then reduce to a moderate oven (350°F) for the remaining time.

  3. If the pie browns too much, cover it with buttered paper.

  4. Brush the top with egg yolk a few minutes before it's done.

  5. Serve hot or cold.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Beef steak
Forms the main meat filling and gives the pie its savory, rich flavor when cooked slowly.
Ox kidney
Adds deep, meaty flavor and a firm, chewy texture to the filling.
Rough puff pastry
Forms a flaky, layered crust that puffs and browns in the oven.
Water or stock
Creates moisture in the dish so the meat becomes tender as it cooks.

The step that matters

Oven temperature change. Starting in a hot oven sets and puffs the pastry quickly, then lowering to a moderate oven lets the meat cook through gently without scorching the crust.

“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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