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Hash of Cold Mutton or Beef

A hash made from finely chopped cold mutton or beef, simmered with spices and onions, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hash of Cold Mutton or Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Chop the bones very finely and place them in a stewing pan.

  2. Add salt, pepper, and spices to the pan.

  3. Cover the mixture with boiling water.

  4. Simmer gently for two hours.

  5. Slice the onion and fry the sliced onion until pale brown.

  6. Mix the fried onion with the gravy from the bones and boil briefly.

  7. Strain the mixture and return the strained mixture to the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Thicken with flour rubbed in butter or plain browned flour, a pinch of brown sugar, and some tomato sauce, then boil well.

  2. Add the cut-up meat, and ensure it never boils to prevent toughness.

  3. Serve with toast or fried sippets.

  4. Add a little cayenne pepper if desired.

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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bones and trimmings of a cold joint
Provide the meat flavour and gelatine that give the gravy its body.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells when heated in liquid.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to help it blend smoothly and add richness.
Fried onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth from browning.

The step that matters

Keep the hash from boiling once the meat is added. Boiling toughens cooked meat by tightening its proteins, so the meat should be heated gently in the gravy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, allspice, carrot, butter, flour):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, carrot, butter, flour. 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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