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Hashed Beef

Hashed Beef is a stew of roast beef, onions, potatoes, and herbs simmered in broth, finished with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Hashed Beef

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 ↓

Hashed Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. In a stew pan, combine the beef trimmings, bones, onions, potatoes, and sweet herbs.

  2. Add warm water or broth to make the gravy.

  3. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour.

  4. Skim and strain the gravy, removing all fat.

Thicken and finish

  1. In another pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Add the strained gravy to the pot and bring to a boil.

  4. Stir in the ketchup and the sliced beef.

  5. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes without boiling.

Serve

  1. Serve in a deep dish with triangular slices of toast dipped in the gravy around the sides.

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. 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

Roast beef
Provides the main meat and flavor, cooked gently into the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the gravy, carrying flavor.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter and gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Potatoes
Break down during simmering and add body and starch to the gravy.
Onions
Soften during simmering, adding sweetness and savory depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes without boiling. Once the beef is added, a gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and ttender-textured. A hard boil toughens meat proteins and can break the flour-thickened sauce, making it grainy or thin.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, potato, butter, flour, ketchup, 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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