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Corn Hash

A savory hash of finely chopped cabbage, onions, green peppers, corn, sugar, mustard, celery seed, black pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Corn Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cabbage, green peppers, and onions very finely.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the chopped vegetables with the corn.

Season and simmer

  1. Add sugar, mustard, celery seed, and black pepper; mix well.

  2. Season with salt and add enough vinegar to cover the mixture.

  3. Simmer for twenty minutes.

Store

  1. This can be bottled and stored in a cool place.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cabbage
Forms the bulk of the hash and gives it a crisp, crunchy texture.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma as they soften during simmering.
Green peppers
Contribute fresh, slightly bitter flavor and crisp-tender texture.
Corn
Adds natural sweetness and a tender, juicy bite to the mixture.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the hash its tangy character and helps preserve it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, pepper, corn, sugar, mustard, celery, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, pepper, corn, sugar, mustard, celery, vinegar. 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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