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Corned Beef Hash

A skillet dish of chopped corned beef, potatoes, onion, and butter, optionally topped with eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Corned Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hash

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent.

  3. Stir in the diced potatoes and cook until they begin to soften.

  4. Add the chopped corned beef and cook until heated through and slightly crispy.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. If desired, top with poached eggs 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. Potato + oniontop 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

Corned beef
Provides the main savory meat flavor and, when cooked until slightly crispy, browned texture.
Potatoes
Supply starch and bulk; softening them gives the hash its tender body.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and turns translucent in the butter.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and rich flavor, helping the other ingredients brown.

The step that matters

Cooking the corned beef until slightly crispy. Meat that is already cooked only needs to heat through. Letting it sit undisturbed in the hot fat lets its surface brown, which adds flavor and texture. Stirring too often steams it instead.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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