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Vegetable Hash

A dish of coarsely chopped leftover vegetables sautéed with butter, pepper, and hot water until cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cabbage and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop leftover vegetables coarsely.

  2. Sprinkle with pepper.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan or frying pan, melt butter over medium heat.

  2. Tip the pan to coat the bottom and sides with butter.

  3. Add the chopped vegetables.

  4. Pour in hot water and cover to trap steam.

  5. Once heated through, remove the cover and stir occasionally until well cooked.

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

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

  2. Cabbage + parsniptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together222 recipes

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

  3. Parsnip + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together353 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Cabbage + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together275 recipes

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

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

Butter
Coats the pan and adds richness and flavour while the vegetables brown gently.
Leftover vegetables
Form the bulk of the hash, providing texture and body once cooked through.
Hot water
Creates steam under the cover so the vegetables heat through evenly.

The step that matters

Pour in hot water and cover to trap steam. Trapped steam heats the vegetables through quickly and softens them. Removing the cover at the right time lets excess moisture evaporate so the hash can brown rather than stay soggy.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, potato, pepper, butter. 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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