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Hash

Hash is a dish of finely chopped cold meat and potatoes cooked with gravy, milk, or water and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all fat and gristle from the cold meat and chop it very fine if not using potatoes, or coarser if using potatoes.

  2. Chop the potatoes separately, using slightly more potato than meat.

Cook

  1. In a hot frying pan, add a little gravy, milk, or water and butter.

  2. Add the hash to the pan, season with salt and pepper.

  3. Stir and toss continuously until the mixture is hot and has a good consistency.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Provides the main protein and savory flavor of the hash.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, helping the hash hold together and turn tender.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor to keep the hash from drying out in the pan.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and helps the mixture brown lightly in the hot pan.

The step that matters

Stir and toss continuously in a hot pan. Constant movement heats the mixture evenly and keeps it from scorching on the hot pan surface. Stopping too long lets pieces stick and burn, while moving them keeps moisture distributed so the hash becomes hot throughout with a good texture.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, milk, 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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