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Corned Beef Hash

A hash of chopped corned beef, potatoes, onions, and seasonings cooked in butter, milk, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Corned Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop cooked corned beef, using some of the fat.

  2. Chop cold boiled potatoes, not too fine.

  3. Mix the chopped beef and potatoes together in equal proportions.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and onion juice, if liked.

Cook the hash

  1. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a frying pan.

  2. Add enough milk, stock, or hot water to moisten the hash.

  3. Add the chopped meat and potatoes.

  4. Mix gently to avoid mashing the potatoes.

  5. Cover and cook slowly for half an hour, or until a crust forms on the bottom.

  6. Turn the heat to high, like an omelet.

  7. Ensure the hash remains distinct, not mushy, and heat through.

Make the brown or white hash

  1. For brown hash, omit potato.

  2. Chop meat to a fine mince.

  3. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a frying pan with one slice of onion.

  4. Cook until onion is removed.

  5. Add one tablespoonful of flour and let it brown to make a brown roux (if hash is beef or mutton).

  6. Do not brown if using veal or chicken.

  7. Slowly add a cupful of stock or hot water to the brown roux.

  8. Add a cupful and a half of minced meat.

  9. Season with salt and pepper.

  10. Stir until well incorporated, and serve immediately on toast.

  11. For a white roux, slowly add a cupful of milk.

  12. Add one and a half cupfuls of veal or chicken chopped fine.

  13. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with poached eggs

  1. Cut toast into large circles with a biscuit cutter.

  2. Spread them with a thick layer of mince, and place a poached egg on top, trimmed to the same size as the toast.

  3. The egg can be cut with the same cutter, or poached in a muffin ring.

  4. Put a dash of pepper on the center of the yolk.

  5. Garnish with parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

756Calories
22 gProtein
21 gFat
118 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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 Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Corned beef (in the method)
Provides the main meaty body and savoury flavour of the hash.
Potatoes (in the method)
Add starchy bulk and body, and stay distinct when mixed gently.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and helps the bottom form a browned crust.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess when used to make a white roux.
Stock
Moistens the hash and adds savoury depth.
Flour
Thickens the fat into a roux that gives the brown hash its body.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until a crust forms on the bottom. Gentle, covered heat lets the bottom brown slowly, forming a crust through browning reactions, while stirring too much would break the potatoes into a mush.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, veal, butter, milk, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, veal, butter, 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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