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Beefsteak Pie

A pie made with beefsteak, onions, potatoes, and a buttery 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 ↓

Beefsteak Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the steak into strips 1½ inches long and 1 inch wide.

  2. Place in a saucepan, cover with boiling water, add the sliced onion, and simmer until the meat is tender.

  3. Remove the meat and discard the onion.

  4. Add the sliced potatoes to the liquid and parboil for 6 minutes, then remove the potatoes.

  5. Measure the liquid and add enough boiling water to make 1 pint, then add the salt and pepper.

  6. Cream the butter and flour together, add to the liquid, and cook for 5 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer half the potatoes, then the meat, and top with the remaining potatoes.

  2. Pour enough gravy over the contents to cover them completely.

  3. When cool, cover with a crust made from the flour, butter, lard, salt, baking powder, and enough milk to form a soft dough.

  4. Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick and cover the baking dish.

  5. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Round steak
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long simmering in liquid.
Potatoes
Form a starchy layer that absorbs gravy and adds body to the filling.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat and potatoes.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the gravy and the crust.
Lard
Adds tenderness and flakiness to the crust.
Baking powder
Lifts the crust so it bakes lighter rather than dense.

The step that matters

Cream the butter and flour together before adding to the liquid. Blending butter and flour into a paste first lets the flour disperse evenly, so the gravy thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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