Name: Chicken Hash
Ingredients: 2 green peppers, chopped fine; 2 onions, chopped fine; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon flour; ½ cup cream; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 chicken breast, chopped fine; bread crumbs for topping

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Hash

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the filling

In a skillet, brown the green peppers and onions in butter.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Add the cream and salt, then mix in the chopped chicken.

Bake and serve

Transfer the mixture to a baking dish.
Sprinkle with bread crumbs and bake until golden brown.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green peppers: Add sweet, slightly bitter vegetable flavor and bulk to the hash.
Onions: Soften and brown in butter, adding sweetness and savory depth.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the vegetables brown.
Flour: Thickens the cream into a binding sauce that holds the hash together.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, forming a creamy sauce with the flour.
Chicken breast: Provides the main protein and substance of the dish.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, flour, cream, chicken, bread):

Potatofits better
Leekfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, flour, cream, chicken, bread. 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.