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New York Hash

A quick hash of chopped meat and potatoes cooked in butter with water or stock.

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 ↓

New York Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold meat finely and the potatoes into small pieces.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the boiling water or stock.

  2. Once boiling, add the meat and potatoes, seasoning to taste.

  3. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until a coating forms on the bottom of the pan.

  4. Serve immediately.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat
Provides the savory, meaty base and bulk of the hash.
Cold potatoes
Supply starch and body, helping the hash hold together and brown in the pan.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the mixture brown and crisp on the pan's surface.

The step that matters

Cooking until a coating forms on the bottom of the pan. Stirring occasionally lets the potato starch and meat proteins brown against the hot pan, building flavour. Stirring too often prevents that crust from forming, and too little heat leaves the mixture soggy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, butter, 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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