Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Hash on Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Make the hash
In a hot saucepan, rub together the butter and flour.
When browning, add the boiling water or stock.
Once boiling, stir in the hashed meat and season with salt and pepper.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Serve
Serve the hash with gravy on hot buttered toast.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + meattop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,777 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter and flour
- Cooked together to form a roux that thickens the gravy and gives it body.
- Boiling water or good stock
- Forms the liquid base of the gravy that moistens the meat.
- Hashed cooked meat
- Main ingredient providing the savory flavor and substance of the dish.
The step that matters
Browning the butter and flour. Cooking the roux until it browns gives the gravy a deeper, nuttier flavor. Adding liquid too early, or stopping before the flour loses its raw taste, leaves the gravy pasty and floury.
“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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