Why it works: Butter and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Beef Hash with Spaghetti
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the spaghetti and sauce base
Cook 1 lb. spaghetti in salted water until al dente, then wash and drain.
Prepare 1/2 cup milk and 1 tablespoon butter.
Make beef hash.
Bake the spaghetti
Layer cooked spaghetti, 14 lb. cheese, butter, and a thick layer of beef hash in a baking pan.
Pour milk over the layers and bake until browned.
Prepare the corn and peppers
Boil four ears of corn in salted water for twenty minutes.
Cut corn kernels from the cob.
Cut green peppers in halves, remove lining and seeds.
Drop peppers into boiling water while corn is cooking.
When corn has been cut, season with butter, pepper, and salt, and set over hot water on stove.
When peppers are tender, remove from fire, cut into small pieces, and mix with corn.
Let stand until blended.
Serve in pepper cups or pour into a baking dish.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Spaghetti (in the method)
- Forms the bulk of the baked dish and holds the layers together.
- Cheese (in the method)
- Melts into the layers, adding richness and helping the dish brown.
- Milk (in the method)
- Moistens the layers as it bakes, keeping the spaghetti from drying out.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the spaghetti layers and the corn mixture.
- Corn (in the method)
- Adds sweetness and a tender texture to the pepper mixture.
The step that matters
Bake until browned. Baking uncovered in a hot oven drives off surface moisture and triggers browning. Pulling the dish too early leaves it pale and wet, while overbaking dries the milk-moistened spaghetti.
“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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