Name: Spanish Hash
Ingredients: 1 cup cold roast meat, chopped; 4 cold boiled potatoes, chopped; 2 small onions, chopped; 1 green pepper, chopped; 1 cup canned tomatoes, chopped; 1 egg, beaten; Tabasco sauce, to taste; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste

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 ↓

Spanish Hash

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

Chop the cold potatoes, onions, and green pepper together.
Add the chopped cold roast meat and canned tomatoes.
Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and a few drops of Tabasco sauce.
Stir in the beaten egg.

Bake and serve

Drop spoonfuls into muffin rings.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).
Serve with tomato sauce.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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

Egg: Binds the chopped mixture together so it holds its shape when baked.
Cold boiled potatoes: Provide starchy bulk and body that hold the hash together.
Roast meat: Adds savoury, meaty flavour and substance to the hash.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, pepper, tomato, egg, sauce):

Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, pepper, tomato, egg, sauce. 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.