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Dry Hash

Dry Hash is a seasoned mixture of cooked meat, potatoes, and onion, fried and baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Dry Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the meat, potato, and onion together.

  2. Season the mixture with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Stir in enough hot stock, gravy, beef dripping, or water to moisten the mixture.

Cook

  1. Heat enough beef dripping in a frying pan to cover the bottom.

  2. Add the hash to the hot pan and stir for a few minutes.

  3. Let it fry until browned on the lower side.

Finish

  1. Turn it out into a hot dish and serve, or transfer to a greased baking pan.

  2. Smooth the top and bake until browned on top.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  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

Cooked meat
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the hash.
Cooked potatoes
Bind with the meat and add bulk and a soft, starchy texture.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma when browned in the mixture.
Hot stock, gravy, or water
Moistens the mixture so it holds together and browns without drying out.

The step that matters

Frying until browned on the lower side. The hash needs enough contact with hot fat to form a crisp, browned crust. Heat that is too low steams the mixture instead, leaving it soggy and pale.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, 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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