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Hashed Beef, Potatoes, and Bread-pudding

A savory bread pudding made with cooked beef, potatoes, onions, and a custard of milk, eggs, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Hashed Beef, Potatoes, and Bread-pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

  1. In a skillet, melt butter and sauté onion until soft.

  2. Add chopped beef and diced potatoes; season with salt and pepper.

Make the custard

  1. Mix bread crumbs, milk, eggs, vanilla, and sugar in a bowl.

  2. Pour the mixture over the beef and potatoes in the skillet.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook on low heat until set, about 15 minutes.

  2. Serve warm.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and set into a custard as they cook.
Bread crumbs
Soak up the milk and egg to give the pudding body and structure.
Milk
Provides the liquid that the eggs set in, keeping the pudding moist.
Potatoes
Add starchy body and soft texture to the filling.
Beef
Supplies the savory, meaty base of the dish.

The step that matters

Cook on low heat until set. Eggs set into a custard at moderate temperatures and turn grainy or curdled when overheated. Low heat helps the pudding stay smooth and tender rather than rubbery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, butter, pepper, bread, milk, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, butter, pepper, bread, milk, egg. 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.

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