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Rice Hash

Rice Hash is a fried mixture of cold meat, potatoes, bread crumbs, parsley, rice, tomatoes, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Rice Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the chopped cold meat, diced potatoes, bread crumbs, chopped parsley, boiled rice, and chopped tomatoes in a bowl.

  2. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

Cook

  1. Add the chopped onion and fry until light brown.

  2. Stir in the meat mixture and season to taste.

  3. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

  4. Serve hot on toast.

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

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

  3. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the main body of the hash and adds savoury flavour.
Potatoes
Add starch and bulk, helping the hash hold together and turn tender.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture together.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and a soft texture to the hash.
Onion
Frying until light brown adds sweetness and depth of flavour.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten the mixture.

The step that matters

Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. A long, gentle simmer lets the potatoes soften and the flavours blend, while occasional stirring prevents sticking and scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, bread, butter, onion, rice, tomato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, bread, butter, onion, rice, tomato. 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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