Name: Cracker Hash
Ingredients: 1 pound cooked beef, chopped fine; 7 crackers, rolled; 1 onion, chopped; salt, to taste; pepper, to taste; ¼ cup water (or more if needed); 1 egg-sized piece of butter, cut into small pieces

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cracker Hash

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

Cook the chopped beef in a little water for 15 minutes, seasoning with onion, salt, and pepper.
Stir the cooked beef mixture into the rolled crackers.
If the mixture is too dry, add a little more water.

Bake and serve

Pour the mixture into a pudding dish.
Dot the top with small pieces of butter.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
Serve in the same dish.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked beef: Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the hash.
Crackers: Bind with the beef and absorb moisture, giving the hash a soft, cohesive texture.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Onion: Adds savoury aroma and sweetness as it cooks with the beef.