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Mother's Hash

A hash made from finely chopped corned beef, potatoes, and beets, cooked with butter, milk, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mother's Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the corned beef finely.

  2. Place it in a frying pan with a little water and cover tightly.

  3. Cook slowly until the water evaporates.

  4. Carefully drain any excess fat from the meat.

Make the hash

  1. Add chopped potatoes and beets, if using.

  2. Stir in a small piece of butter, a little milk, and season with pepper and salt, if needed.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

Corned beef
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the hash.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, giving the hash a soft, tender texture.
Beets
Add natural sweetness and an earthy flavor, and color the hash.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping to carry flavor and aroma.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until the water evaporates. Covered slow cooking gently steams the beef so it becomes tender. Once the water is gone, the meat can fry in its own fat and brown, which builds flavor. Rushing this step can leave the beef tough or scorched.

“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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