Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Sausage Hash
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the potatoes coarsely and the sausages finely.
Season the potatoes with salt and pepper, then mix in the sausage.
Cook and serve
Melt the butter in a frying pan, then add the hash.
Spread the mixture lightly in the pan without stirring.
Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 30 minutes until browned.
Fold the hash and serve immediately on a hot dish.
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.
-
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Boiled potatoes
- Form the bulk of the hash and crisp to a browned crust in the pan.
- Sausages
- Add savory flavor and fat that adds richness to the hash.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavor and helps the hash brown in the pan.
The step that matters
Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 30 minutes until browned. Low heat with the lid on cooks the potatoes through gently, while the surface needs time to brown without burning. Leaving the hash undisturbed lets a crust form on the bottom instead of steaming the potatoes into a mash.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatothe original
- Carrotfits less well
- Onionfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter. 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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