Skip to main content
Main

Fish Hash

A hash of flaked fish, mashed potatoes, bacon, onion, parsley, butter, and milk or gravy, seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Flake the fish, removing skin and bones.

  2. Mash the potatoes and mix with the fish.

  3. Season with half the parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Mince the bacon and onion finely.

Cook and serve

  1. In a frying pan, cook the bacon and onion in butter for a few minutes.

  2. Stir in the fish and potatoes, cooking until heated through.

  3. Pour in the gravy or milk and heat thoroughly.

  4. Serve hot, garnished with the remaining parsley.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide starch and bulk that bind the hash and give it a soft, tender texture.
Fish
Supplies the main flavour and flaky protein texture of the hash.
Bacon
Its fat renders into the pan, adding savoury flavour and helping the onion brown.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and cooks in the fat.
Milk or gravy
Adds moisture so the hash stays soft and heats through evenly.

The step that matters

Cook the bacon and onion in butter for a few minutes. Cooking the bacon and onion gently until softened and lightly browned builds savoury flavour through browning. Rushing this leaves the onion raw-tasting and the fat underdeveloped.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, potato, parsley, butter, milk, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, parsley, 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes