Name: Beef Hash, Baked
Ingredients: 1 pound cold beef, chopped very fine; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons butter (size of an egg); ½ cup water; 7 rolled crackers (or grated bread crumbs)

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Beef Hash, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 pound cold beef, chopped very fine
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter (size of an egg)
½ cup water
7 rolled crackers (or grated bread crumbs)

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

In a pot, combine chopped beef, pepper, salt, butter, and water.
Stew the mixture for 5 minutes.
Stir in the rolled crackers or bread crumbs.

Bake

Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.
Bake for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold beef: Forms the bulk of the hash and provides the savoury meaty base.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, keeping the hash moist as it cooks.
Rolled crackers or bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and bind the chopped beef so the mixture holds together.

“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.