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Meat Hash, Prom the Fan or in Balls

A dish of finely chopped leftover meat mixed with parsley, leeks, onions, bread crumbs, eggs, and broth, then stewed and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,326 recipes. Both carry ethyl butyrate, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Meat Hash, Prom the Fan or in Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hash

  1. Chop the leftover meat very fine.

  2. Season with parsley, leeks, onions, bread crumbs, and beaten eggs.

  3. In a stewpan, melt butter or lard and add a pinch of flour.

  4. Add the meat mixture and moisten with broth.

  5. Let it stew over gentle heat for 30 minutes.

Crust and serve

  1. Spread the hash on a plate and place it on the stove until slightly crusted.

  2. For balls, mix in sausage meat and additional egg yolks.

  3. Form balls, dip in egg whites, coat with flour, and fry until golden.

  4. Serve hot, garnished with parsley or sauce.

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. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  2. Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  4. Leek + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover meat
Forms the bulk of the hash and provides its savory, meaty flavor.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the hash into a cohesive mass.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help it set as it cooks.
Butter or lard
Adds fat for richness and helps the hash brown on the surface.
Leeks and onions
Add aromatic sweetness and savory depth as they soften.

The step that matters

Stewing over gentle heat. Gentle heat lets the broth and bread crumbs soak into the finely chopped meat and the eggs set evenly. High heat can toughen the eggs and scorch the fat before the hash is moist and cohesive.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, parsley, leek, bread, egg, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, parsley, leek, bread, egg, butter, flour. 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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