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Dry Hash

Dry hash is a fried mixture of minced cooked meat, potatoes, and onion, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Dry Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the meat, potato, and onion together.

  2. Season the mixture with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Stir in enough hot stock to moisten the mixture well.

Fry

  1. Heat lard or beef dripping in a frying pan until it covers the bottom.

  2. Add the hash to the hot pan and stir for a few minutes.

  3. Let it fry until browned on the lower side.

  4. Turn the hash onto a hot dish and serve.

Bake and serve

  1. Alternatively, transfer to a greased baking pan.

  2. Smooth the top.

  3. Bake until browned on top.

  4. Serve in 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.

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. Onion + potatotop 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

Cold cooked meat
Forms the bulk of the hash and provides its savoury, meaty flavour.
Cooked potatoes
Bind with the meat and add body, giving the hash a soft, cohesive texture.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma when cooked to a light brown.
Hot stock, gravy, or water
Moistens the mixture so it holds together and does not dry out while frying or baking.

The step that matters

Let it fry until browned on the lower side. Browning develops flavour through the Maillard reaction, but the hash must sit undisturbed long enough to form a crust; stirring constantly keeps it pale and soggy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, 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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