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Browned Hash

A fried hash of cooked meat, mashed potatoes, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Browned Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of fat.

  2. Combine the meat, mashed potatoes, boiling water, remaining fat, salt, pepper, onion juice, and parsley in a bowl.

Cook and serve

  1. Spread the mixture smoothly in the frying pan.

  2. Cook over moderate heat for about 30 minutes without stirring, allowing it to brown slowly.

  3. Fold the hash like an omelet 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. 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

Cooked meat
Provides the savoury body and flavour that the hash is built around.
Mashed potatoes
Binds the mixture and gives a soft, moist interior under the browned crust.
Fat
Conducts heat for browning and keeps the hash from sticking to the pan.
Boiling water
Adds moisture and loosens the mashed potatoes so they blend with the meat.

The step that matters

Cook without stirring. Leaving the hash undisturbed over moderate heat lets a crisp brown crust form on the bottom. Stirring breaks that crust apart and prevents even browning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, pepper, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, pepper, parsley. 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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