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Shepherd Pie

A baked dish of browned ground meat and vegetables topped with mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Shepherd 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a skillet, melt the butter and sauté the chopped onion until translucent.

  3. Add the ground meat and cook until browned.

  4. Stir in the mixed vegetables and beef broth, and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Transfer the meat mixture to a baking dish and spread the mashed potatoes on top.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Carrot + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together794 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Ground meat
Provides the savory, browned base of the filling and its rich flavor.
Mashed potatoes
Forms the topping that becomes golden and crisp in the oven.
Mixed vegetables
Add sweetness, color and texture to the filling.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, adding aromatic depth to the filling.
Beef broth
Adds moisture and savory flavor that keeps the filling from drying out.

The step that matters

Browning the ground meat. Cooking the meat until well browned builds deep savory flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pale, steamed meat tastes flat, so let it sit undisturbed long enough to brown before adding liquid.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, carrot, corn, onion, butter, beef):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Peanutfits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, carrot, corn, onion, butter, beef. 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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