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Baked Hash

A baked dish of leftover meat mixed with sauces and baked over mashed potatoes or rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Baked Hash

Why it works: Tomato and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Hash

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Grind or chop the left-over meat.

  2. Mix the meat with gravy, tomato sauce, or white sauce.

  3. Butter a baking dish and line it with mashed potatoes or rice.

  4. Place the meat mixture into the dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Set the dish in a pan of hot water.

  2. Heat in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until warmed through.

  3. Serve directly from the baking dish.

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.

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.

  1. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Left-over meat
Forms the main filling and provides the savory flavor of the hash.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor so the meat does not dry out while baking.
Tomato sauce
Adds acidity and sweetness, and moisture to the meat mixture.
White sauce
Adds richness and moisture, binding the meat into a creamy filling.
Mashed potatoes or rice
Forms the base layer that holds the filling and absorbs its moisture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor and helps keep the base from sticking to the dish.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Onionfits about as well
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sauce, potato, 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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