Name: Coened Beef Hash
Ingredients: 1 pint cold boiled corned beef, chopped; 1 pint cold boiled potatoes, chopped; 1 small onion, chopped (optional); 2 tablespoons butter; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; rich milk or cream, enough to moisten

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 ↓

Coened Beef Hash

Ingredients

1 pint cold boiled corned beef, chopped
1 pint cold boiled potatoes, chopped
1 small onion, chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
pepper to taste
coarse sea salt to taste
rich milk or cream, enough to moisten

Directions

Prepare

Chop the cold boiled corned beef and cold boiled potatoes.
If desired, chop the onion.

Cook the hash

In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the chopped beef and potatoes to the pan.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Pour in enough milk or cream to moisten the mixture.
Cover the pan and heat until hot.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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 boiled corned beef: Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the hash.
Cold boiled potatoes: Adds starchy bulk and soft texture that binds the hash together.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and helps the hash brown in the pan.
Rich milk or cream: Adds moisture and richness so the mixture is tender rather than dry.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits about as well
Onionthe original
Tomatofits about as well
Carrotfits about as well

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