Name: Hashed Beef, Potatoes, and Bread Pudding
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked beef, chopped; 2 cups cooked potatoes, diced; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 onion, chopped; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 cup milk; 2 eggs, beaten

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 ↓

Hashed Beef, Potatoes, and Bread Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the filling

In a skillet, melt butter and sauté onion until soft.
Add chopped beef and diced potatoes; season with salt and pepper.

Make the custard

Mix bread crumbs with milk and beaten eggs in a bowl.
Combine the beef mixture with the bread mixture.

Bake

Transfer to a greased baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the mixture and help it set as it bakes.
Bread crumbs: Absorb the milk and eggs, giving the pudding its soft body.
Milk: Adds moisture and softens the bread crumbs into a custard-like base.
Potatoes: Add starchy body and bulk to the filling.
Beef: Provides the main savory flavor and protein of the dish.

The step that matters

Combine the beef mixture with the bread mixture. The egg and milk mixture must be evenly distributed through the filling so the pudding sets uniformly; uneven mixing can leave wet or dry pockets.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Tomatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, butter, pepper, bread, milk, egg. 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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Hashed Beef, Potatoes, and Bread Pudding