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Corned Beef Hash

A skillet dish of chopped corned beef, potatoes, onions, and optional red pepper, cooked with butter and seasonings.

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

Prepare

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the sliced onions and cook until browned and tender.

Make the hash

  1. Stir in the chopped corned beef and potatoes.

  2. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Add enough water to moisten the mixture.

  4. If desired, add the chopped red pepper for extra flavor.

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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 savory meat flavor and the chewy, shredded bulk of the hash.
Potatoes
Supply starch that gives the hash its body and crisp-browned edges.
Onions
Caramelize while cooking, adding sweetness and depth of flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the onions and potatoes brown.
Water
Moistens the mixture so the potatoes cook through and the hash stays tender.

The step that matters

Cook the onions until browned and tender. Onions need enough time over medium heat for their sugars to caramelize, which builds sweetness and color. Rushing this leaves them sharp and pale, so the hash tastes flat.

Swap the onion

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

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

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