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English Beefsteak Pie

A pie filled with seasoned beef pieces wrapped in pastry and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

English Beefsteak Pie

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 beef

  1. Cut the beef into 1-inch square pieces and flatten the pieces thin.

  2. Season the beef pieces with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Roll each piece firmly.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a deep dish with pie crust or biscuit dough.

  2. Place the rolled beef pieces snugly in two layers in the dish.

  3. Add bits of butter and a little cold water on top.

  4. Cover with the top crust and bake at 400°F (200°C) until 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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Beef + biscuittop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together197 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

Beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender and savory during the long bake.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top crust brown.
Pie crust or biscuit dough
Forms the enclosing pastry that holds the filling and turns golden in the oven.

The step that matters

Rolling and layering the beef. Rolling each piece firmly and packing the pieces snugly in two layers keeps the filling compact so it cooks evenly and does not leave large air gaps under 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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