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Fish Hash

Fish Hash is a fried dish of salt pork, fish, potatoes, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Fish Hash

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the salt pork in a frying pan until brown, then remove it.

  2. In the same pan, add the chopped fish and potatoes.

  3. Pour in the boiling water and heat slowly, stirring often.

  4. Spread the mixture smoothly and allow it to brown without burning.

  5. Fold the hash like an omelet, then serve garnished with the fried pork.

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. Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Pork + fishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Salt pork
Renders fat for frying and provides savory flavor, with crisp pieces used as garnish.
Cooked fish
Forms the main body of the hash and supplies its flavor.
Cold potatoes
Hold the hash together and add body, browning on the pan surface.

The step that matters

Allow the mixture to brown without burning. Spreading the hash flat and heating it slowly lets the potatoes develop a browned crust through the Maillard reaction. High heat or neglect can scorch the surface before the interior heats through.

“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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