Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Baked Hash
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, combine chopped meat, chopped cold potatoes, pepper, and salt.
Assemble and bake
Transfer the mixture to a baking dish and sprinkle bread crumbs on top.
Dot the top with bits of butter and pour milk over the mixture.
Bake for 30 to 60 minutes, until heated through and golden on top.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Bread + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chopped meat
- Provides the savoury, protein-rich base of the hash.
- Chopped cold potatoes
- Adds bulk and body, and holds the mixture together as it bakes.
- Bread crumbs
- Form a golden, crisp topping as they brown in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the top brown as it melts.
- Milk
- Moistens the mixture and sets into a soft, creamy binder as it bakes.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, bread, butter, milk):
- Potatothe original
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatofits less well
- Asparagusfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, bread, butter, milk. 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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