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Hashed and Browned Potatoes

A dish of diced potatoes cooked with onion, celery, milk, butter, flour, and breadcrumbs, then baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Hashed and Browned Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Pare and cut the potatoes into very small, even pieces.

  2. Place the potatoes in a saucepan with the minced onion and chopped celery.

  3. Cover with salted boiling water and cook until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. Drain the water and add the heated milk with a pinch of baking soda.

  2. Bring to a bubble and stir in the butter, rubbed to a cream with the flour.

  3. Season with pepper and salt, mixing well without breaking the potatoes.

  4. Remove from heat, stir gently, and transfer to a greased pudding dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and set its soft, tender body when cooked.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the potatoes, forming a smooth binding liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture so it holds together rather than running.
Bread crumbs
Form a topping that browns in the oven, adding a crisp golden surface.

The step that matters

Stir gently after adding the milk and butter. Cooked potatoes are fragile; vigorous stirring breaks their starch-rich cells, releasing starch and turning the dish gluey and mushy instead of light and pieces-intact.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, milk, butter, flour, pepper, bread. 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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