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Beef Hash with Spaghetti

A baked casserole of spaghetti layered with cheese, butter, beef hash, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Beef Hash with Spaghetti

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cook the spaghetti according to package instructions, then wash and drain it.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking pan, layer the spaghetti, then a layer of cheese, a layer of butter, and a thick layer of beef hash.

  2. Repeat the layers as needed.

  3. Pour the milk over the top and bake at 350°F (175°C) until brown.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  4. Milk + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Cheese + beeftop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

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

What each ingredient does

Spaghetti
Forms the bulk and structure of the casserole, holding the layers together.
Cheese
Melts into the layers and browns on top, adding richness and savory flavor.
Beef hash
Supplies the meaty, savory filling that gives the casserole its main flavor.
Milk
Adds moisture that soaks into the pasta and helps the casserole become creamy as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness that carries flavor through the layers and aids browning.

The step that matters

Pour the milk over the top and bake until brown. Milk poured over the layers needs time in the oven to soak into the pasta and set, while the surface browns. Pulling it too early leaves the casserole wet and underset, and baking too long can dry it out.

“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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