Name: Beef and Hominy Hash
Ingredients: 2 lbs shin beef, without bone; 1 lb hominy; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef and Hominy Hash

Ingredients

2 lbs shin beef, without bone
1 lb hominy
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare

Cook the shin beef until tender, then chop it into small pieces.
Prepare the hominy according to package instructions.

Make the hash

Combine the chopped beef and hominy in a skillet.
Season with salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat until heated through.

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.

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

Shin beef: Provides the main protein and savory meaty flavor once cooked until tender.
Hominy: Adds starchy bulk and a soft, chewy texture to the hash.

“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.