Name: Canned Corn-beef Hash on Toast
Ingredients: 2 cups canned corn beef; 1 cup strained tomatoes; 1 teaspoon grated onion; Salt and pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley or celery tops

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Canned Corn-beef Hash on Toast

Ingredients

2 cups canned corn beef
1 cup strained tomatoes
1 teaspoon grated onion
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley or celery tops

Directions

Prepare the hash

Chop the canned corn beef finely.
In a saucepan, combine the corn beef, strained tomatoes, grated onion, salt, and pepper.
Heat the mixture over medium heat until warmed through.

Serve on toast

Toast slices of bread and place them on a platter.
Spoon the corn beef hash over the toasted bread and sprinkle with parsley or celery tops.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 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

Canned corn beef: Provides the meaty base and the bulk of the hash.
Strained tomatoes: Adds moisture and a mild acidity that flavours the hash.
Grated onion: Adds aroma and savoury sweetness as it softens in the warm mixture.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, beef, tomato, pepper, parsley. 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.