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Boston Brown Hash

A baked hash of leftover meat, mashed potatoes, stale bread crumbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Boston Brown Hash

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop the remains of steaks, roasts, or stews very fine.

  2. Grease a deep pie dish.

Layer

  1. Layer mashed potatoes in the bottom of the dish.

  2. Add a layer of meat.

  3. Add a layer of stale bread crumbs.

  4. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  5. Add a few bits of butter.

  6. Moisten with ½ cup beef gravy.

  7. Add another layer of mashed potatoes.

  8. Dip a knife into milk, then smooth the top.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until brown.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat remains
Provides the savory, meaty flavor and the main body of the hash.
Mashed potatoes
Forms the moist, soft layers that hold the hash together.
Stale bread crumbs
Absorb the gravy and add a light, crisp-edged texture.
Beef gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth so the layers do not dry out while baking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. Browning comes from heat acting on the surface proteins and sugars in the potatoes, milk and butter. Pulling the dish early leaves the top pale and the layers wet and loose.

Swap the potato

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

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

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