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Browned Hash

A hash of corned beef and mashed potatoes cooked in fat until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Browned Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine corned beef, mashed potatoes, boiling water, fat, salt, pepper, onion juice, and parsley in a bowl.

  2. Melt 1 tablespoon of fat in a frying pan over moderate heat.

Cook and serve

  1. Spread the mixture smoothly in the pan and cook for about 30 minutes without stirring, allowing it to brown slowly.

  2. Fold the mixture like an omelette before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  5. 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

Corned beef
Provides the savory meat base and most of the hash's characteristic flavor.
Mashed potatoes
Bind the hash and add body and moisture to the mixture.
Fat
Helps the hash brown in the pan and adds richness.
Boiling water
Moistens the mixture so the potatoes and meat hold together evenly.

The step that matters

Cook without stirring. Leaving the mixture undisturbed lets a browned crust form on the bottom, which gives contrast in texture. Stirring breaks up that crust and keeps the hash pale and mushy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

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