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To Hash Beef

A dish of minced beef cooked with onion, water, pepper, salt, vinegar, and gravy, served over bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Hash Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onion or shallot finely.

Make the hash

  1. In a small saucepan, combine the onion, water, pepper, and salt; boil until the onion is soft.

  2. Add the gravy from the meat and the minced meat; do not let it boil.

  3. Mix in the vinegar before serving.

Serve

  1. Prepare a small hot dish with slices of bread and pour the minced meat over it.

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

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

  2. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Minced meat
Forms the main body of the hash and provides its savory, meaty flavor.
Gravy from cooked meat
Adds moisture and rich meat flavor so the mixture stays loose and juicy.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and gravy.
Onion or shallot
Adds aroma and gentle sweetness as it softens in the water.
Bread
Serves as a base that soaks up the gravy and meat juices.

The step that matters

Do not let the meat mixture boil. Once the minced meat and gravy are added, boiling toughens the meat proteins and can make the texture dry and grainy. Keeping the mixture just hot lets it stay tender and moist.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, meat, vinegar, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, meat, vinegar, bread. 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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