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Beef Hashed, a LA Francaise

A French-style beef hash with a butter‑flour sauce, onions, parsley, water, and egg yolk‑lemon thickener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Beef Hashed, a LA Francaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a stew pan over low heat.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Add the chopped onion and minced parsley, and cook until browned.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Add beef and thicken

  1. Pour in the water and add the beef slices.

  2. Heat gradually until near boiling.

  3. Mix the egg yolks with lemon juice and stir into the sauce to thicken.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Walnut + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Walnut + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

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

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 meat flavor and substance of the hash.
Flour
Its starch thickens the sauce as it cooks in the butter and liquid.
Egg yolks
Their proteins set when gently heated, thickening the sauce and adding richness.
Butter
Carries flavor and adds richness, and helps the onion brown.
Onion
Browning releases sweetness and aroma that build the dish's savory base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the egg yolks.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolks into the sauce. Egg yolk proteins set at high heat, so if the sauce is boiling when the yolks go in they can curdle and turn grainy. Keep the sauce below a boil and stir the yolk mixture in gradually so it thickens smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (walnut, butter, flour, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, beef):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against walnut, butter, flour, parsley, pepper, nutmeg, beef. 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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