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A Fine Beefsteak Pie

A savory pie made with beef steaks, broth, Harvey sauce, and suet paste, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

A Fine Beefsteak Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the beef steaks into large pieces.

  2. Fry the beef quickly over high heat.

  3. Layer the beef in a dish, sprinkling salt, pepper, and mushroom powder between layers.

  4. Pour the broth and Harvey sauce over the beef.

Cover and bake

  1. Cover with beef suet paste.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beef + saucetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,650 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef steaks
Provides the meaty body and savory flavor of the filling.
Beef suet paste
Forms a rich, tender crust that seals in the filling as it bakes.
Strong broth
Adds moisture and deep savory flavor that softens the beef during baking.
Harvey sauce
Adds tangy, savory depth to the broth and beef.
Mushroom powder
Adds earthy, umami aroma that reinforces the beef flavor.

The step that matters

Fry the beef quickly over high heat. Searing in a hot pan browns the surface through the Maillard reaction, creating deep savory flavor. Meat that is crowded or steamed turns grey and tastes flat, so brown it in batches.

“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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