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Lamb Hash

A savory hash of roast lamb, potatoes, onion, and gravy, cooked in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lamb Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all gristle from the roast lamb, but leave some fat, and chop it finely.

  2. Add the chopped potatoes and chopped Spanish onion. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook

  1. Heat the butter in a skillet and add the hash mixture.

  2. Cook until heated through and slightly browned.

  3. Stir in the rich gravy and cover to steam for three minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

  3. Lamb + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast lamb
Provides the main meat and flavor, with leftover fat adding richness and moisture.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, helping the hash hold together and brown on the surface.
Spanish onion
Adds sweetness and aroma that deepen as it cooks with the meat and butter.
Butter
Conducts heat in the skillet and adds richness that promotes browning.
Rich gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth, and softens the hash as it steams.

The step that matters

Cook until heated through and slightly browned. Cooking over steady heat without overcrowding lets the surface brown through the Maillard reaction, creating flavor, while the interior warms through. Too little heat leaves the hash steamed and pale.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lamb, potato, pepper, butter. 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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