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Vegetable Hash

A dish of leftover boiled vegetables sautéed with butter and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the leftover vegetables coarsely and sprinkle with pepper.

  2. In a saucepan or frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat, then tip the pan to coat the bottom and sides with butter.

Cook

  1. Add the chopped vegetables and pour in hot water.

  2. Cover the pan to trap steam and heat thoroughly.

  3. Remove the cover and stir occasionally until well cooked.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Cabbage + parsniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together222 recipes

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

  3. Parsnip + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together353 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

  5. 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

Remains of boiled vegetables
Provide the bulk of the hash and its cooked, tender texture.
Butter
Adds richness and coats the pan so the vegetables do not stick.
Hot water
Creates steam that heats the vegetables through under the cover.

The step that matters

Covering the pan to trap steam. Steam heats the chopped vegetables through evenly. Without the cover, moisture escapes and the pieces may stay cold in the centre or scorch on the bottom before they are hot.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, potato, 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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