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Rump Steak Pie

A pie made with thinly sliced rump steak, flour, water, and puff pastry, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rump Steak 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

  1. Cut the rump steak into thin slices.

  2. Season the slices with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Dip each piece into flour and place them in a small pie dish, forming a dome on top.

  4. Add ⅓ cup of water.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cover with ¾ pound of half puff pastry.

  2. Brush the top with beaten egg.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 1 hour.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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

Rump steak
Forms the meat filling, providing savory flavor and substance as it cooks in the dish.
Flour
Coats the meat so it thickens the juices into a light gravy within the pie.
Half puff paste
Forms the flaky, rich pastry crust that covers and seals the filling.
Egg
Brushed on top, it promotes a glossy golden browning on the pastry.

The step that matters

Brush the top with beaten egg. An even coat of egg gives the pastry a glossy, golden finish. Thick or pooled egg can cause uneven browning and may glue the layers together, so brush lightly and evenly.

“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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