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Baked Hash

A baked dish of minced meat, onions, bread crumbs, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Baked Hash

Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked 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

  1. Parboil the onions, then mince them along with the meat.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and combine the minced meat and onions.

Mix and bake

  1. Mix in the bread crumbs, melted butter or dripping, beaten eggs, milk, and seasoning.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a greased baking pan and smooth the top.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15-20 minutes or until light brown.

  4. Serve directly from the baking pan.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked beef, veal, or mutton
Provides the main body of the hash, which holds the dish together as a sliceable mass.
Eggs
Bind the minced meat and crumbs so the baked mixture sets firm rather than crumbling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the baked hash a tender, cohesive texture.
Butter, beef dripping, or lard
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown in the oven.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften and mingle with the meat.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown. Baking only until lightly browned at 400°F sets the eggs and surface without drying the meat. Overbaking toughens the proteins and dries the crumbs, so check at the early end of the 15-20 minute range.

Swap the thyme

The recipe marks thyme as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, bread, butter, egg, milk, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, bread, butter, egg, milk, pepper. 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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