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Baked Hash

A baked dish of minced meat, onions, breadcrumbs, and eggs, seasoned and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Baked Hash

Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Baked Hash

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

  1. Parboil the onions, then mince them along with the meat.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and add the minced meat and onions.

Mix and season

  1. Mix in the bread crumbs, melted butter or dripping, beaten eggs, and enough milk to moisten.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, and optional herbs or acid to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a greased baking pan and smooth the top.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15-20 minutes until light brown.

  3. Serve directly from the baking pan.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Butter + milktop 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

Cooked beef, veal, or mutton
Provides the bulk and meaty texture of the hash.
Eggs
Bind the minced meat and crumbs together so the mixture holds its shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body, keeping the hash tender rather than dense.
Melted butter, beef dripping, or lard
Adds fat and richness, and helps the top brown in the oven.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften and mellow during parboiling.

Swap the thyme

The recipe marks thyme as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, bread, butter, egg, milk, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, bread, butter, egg, milk, 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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