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Hash, with Potatoes

A dish of finely chopped beef mixed with boiled potatoes, cooked with butter or drippings and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Hash, with Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove bones from the beef and chop it finely.

  2. Mix the chopped beef with the chopped potatoes in a skillet.

Cook

  1. Add melted butter or clarified drippings and just enough hot water to prevent burning.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Stir continuously until the mixture is cooked through.

  4. For a crispy texture, let it cook longer to form a crust on the bottom, then turn it out onto a flat dish.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meaty flavor and substance that makes up the body of the hash.
Potatoes
Supply starch and bulk, and their browned surfaces add texture and savory flavor.
Butter or clarified drippings
Adds fat for richer flavor and helps the hash brown and crisp in the pan.

The step that matters

Let the crust form before turning. Stirring constantly keeps the mixture from browning. A crust forms only when the mixture is left undisturbed in the hot fat, and that browning gives the crispy texture the dish is known for.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, 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.

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