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Corned-beef Hash

A hash of corned beef and potatoes cooked slowly in butter and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Corned-beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the potato and beef separately into fine pieces, seasoning each with salt and pepper.

  2. Mix the beef and potatoes together lightly.

Cook

  1. Heat the milk with half of the butter in a frying pan until warm.

  2. Add the hash to the pan and spread it evenly.

  3. Place the remaining butter on top in pieces.

  4. Cover the pan and cook slowly for 30 minutes without stirring.

  5. Once a rich, thick crust forms on the bottom, fold the hash like an omelette and transfer it to a warm platter.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  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

Beef
Provides the main savory, meaty flavor and protein bulk of the hash.
Potato
Adds starch and body, helping the hash bind and form a crisp, browned crust.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the bottom of the hash brown in the pan.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the potato and beef mixture as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cook slowly without stirring. Leaving the hash undisturbed lets a browned crust form on the bottom through the Maillard reaction. Stirring breaks up the crust and keeps the hash pale and soft.

“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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