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Corned Beef Hash

A hash of corned beef, potatoes, butter, water, and pepper cooked in a pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Corned Beef Hash

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the hash

  1. In an iron frying pan, combine the butter, chopped beef, chopped potatoes, water, and pepper.

  2. Stir gently to mix, being careful not to break the potato pieces.

  3. Cover the pan and heat until thoroughly warmed.

  4. Remove the cover and move the hash to one side of the pan, allowing it to reach the top.

  5. Keep this side on the hottest part of the stove until browned.

Serve

  1. Use a knife to loosen the hash, then place a platter on the pan and turn it upside down to serve.

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 + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Butter + beeftop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the hash brown and carrying flavour.
Chopped beef
Provides the savoury, meaty body of the hash.
Chopped potatoes
Supply starch and bulk, becoming tender inside and crisping on the browned side.
Water
Adds moisture that helps the potatoes soften while the pan is covered.

The step that matters

Keep the hash on the hottest part of the stove until browned. Potato starch and meat proteins brown only with sustained direct heat and little moisture. Turning or moving the hash too early leaves it soft and pale instead of forming a crisp crust.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, beef, pepper. 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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