Skip to main content
Main

Ham Hash

A fried potato and ham cake served with macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ham Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine mashed potatoes and chopped ham.

  2. Add beaten eggs and mix well.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat oil or butter in a skillet over medium heat.

  2. Pour the mixture into the skillet, forming a large flat cake.

  3. Cook until golden brown on both sides.

  4. Serve with macaroni.

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 + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Potato + hamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together127 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Mashed potatoes
Provides the bulk and starch that hold the hash together.
Chopped ham
Adds savory flavor and salty, meaty character to the cake.
Eggs
Bind the potatoes and ham so the mixture sets into a cohesive cake.

The step that matters

Cook until golden brown on both sides. Browning develops flavor through the Maillard reaction, but a large flat cake needs enough fat and steady medium heat to brown evenly without burning. Pressing it gently lets the surface contact the pan, and flipping only once keeps the cake intact.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, egg, butter):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, egg, 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes