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Beef Hash

A dish of finely chopped beef cooked with water, cream or milk, thickened with flour, seasoned, and served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,481 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold steak or roast beef finely.

Make the hash

  1. Cook the chopped beef in a little water.

  2. Add cream or milk and thicken with flour.

  3. Season to taste.

Serve

  1. Pour the mixture over thin slices of toast.

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. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  2. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + creamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cold steak or roast beef
Provides the main meat and savory flavor of the dish.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness to form a creamy base.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the mixture clings to the toast.

The step that matters

Thicken with flour. Flour must be cooked into the liquid so it swells and sets the sauce smooth. Adding it without enough heat or stirring can leave lumps or a raw, pasty taste.

“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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