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Corned Beef Hash

A skillet hash of corned beef, potatoes, onion, cream, and butter, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Corned Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped corned beef, cubed potatoes, and chopped onion.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and fry until the underside is nice and brown.

  4. Fold the hash in half and turn it out onto a heated platter.

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. Potato + oniontop 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

Corned beef
Supplies the main meaty flavor and chewy texture of the hash.
Potatoes
Adds starch and body, and their cut surfaces brown into crisp bits.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns in the fat.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Fry until the underside is nice and brown. Browning, known as the Maillard reaction, needs direct contact with the hot pan and time without stirring. Pressing the hash and leaving it undisturbed builds a crust, while moving it too often keeps it steamed 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.

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