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Corned Beef Hash

A savory hash of boiled corned beef, potatoes, onions, and optional red pepper, cooked in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Corned Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Brown the sliced onions in butter until tender.

  2. Add the chopped corned beef and potatoes to the onions.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Add enough water or milk to moisten the mixture.

  5. For extra flavor, mix in the chopped red pepper if desired.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  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

Corned beef
Provides the main meaty body and savory, salty flavor of the hash.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, so the hash holds together and gives a soft, hearty texture.
Onions
Sweeten and deepen the flavor as they soften and brown in butter.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the onions brown.
Water or milk
Adds moisture so the mixture stays tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Add enough water or milk to moisten the mixture. Too little liquid leaves the hash dry and crumbly, while too much keeps it wet and steams it instead of letting the potatoes and meat develop some browning. Add it gradually until the mixture is just moist.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, butter, pepper, 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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