Skip to main content
Main

Kecooking Beef

Cooked beef is reheated or chopped with potatoes, bread crumbs or rice, then served as hash or fried into cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Abel, Mary Hinman, b. 1850 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Kecooking Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. To serve roast beef a second time, trim the roast into shape again.

  2. Cover it closely and put it into a hot oven for ten minutes or less, according to the size of the piece.

  3. Or cut the beef in slices and lay them in hot gravy only long enough to heat them through.

Make the hash

  1. Chop the beef and mix it with a portion of chopped or mashed potatoes, bread crumbs or boiled rice.

  2. Warm the mixture as hash, or shape it into cakes or balls to fry on a griddle or in boiling fat.

  3. Mix the chopped meat with the potatoes, bread crumbs or rice, add salt and pepper, and make quite moist with water or soup.

  4. Put a good piece of butter or beef fat into a spider, and when it is hot, put in the hash.

  5. Cover and let it steam, then remove the cover and let it dry out while a brown crust forms on the bottom, or stir till hot and dish immediately.

Make cakes or balls

  1. For cakes, make the mixture not quite as moist as for hash, form into little cakes, and dust with flour.

  2. Fry the cakes to a nice brown in a little beef dripping on a griddle.

  3. Or egg and bread crumb the balls, and fry them in boiling fat.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

894Calories
46 gProtein
33 gFat
97 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Vealnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Abel, Mary Hinman, b. 1850. 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. See the original page.

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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Beef
Provides the main meat, already cooked, so it only needs gentle reheating and flavor.
Potatoes (in the method)
Starch that holds the chopped meat together and helps the hash crisp on the surface.
Butter
Fat that conducts heat in the pan and helps form a brown crust on the hash.
Bread crumbs (in the method)
Absorb moisture and bind the mixture so it can be shaped into cakes or balls.
Egg
Binds the balls so their coating holds together during frying.
Flour
Light dusting on the cakes that helps them brown evenly in the fat.

The step that matters

Let the hash steam, then dry out to form the crust. Covering the pan steams the potatoes and meat through. Removing the cover lets surface moisture evaporate, so browning reactions can form a crisp crust. Skipping the drying step leaves the hash soft and pale.

“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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes