Name: Hashed Beef or Mutton
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon Harvey Sauce; 1 teaspoon Tomato Sauce; ½ cup Port Wine; 1-2 Capsicum, finely chopped; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Cayenne, to taste; Gravy from cooked Beef or Mutton; Flour, as needed

Why it works: Tomato and capsicum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,520 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Hashed Beef or Mutton

Ingredients

Directions

Mix Harvey Sauce, Tomato Sauce, Port Wine, Capsicum, salt, pepper, and cayenne with the leftover gravy.
If needed, add a little flour to thicken the mixture.
Serve this mixture as a hash with warmed beef or mutton.
Optionally, add chopped parsley five minutes before serving.

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.

Tomato + capsicumtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,520 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Capsicum + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,571 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 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

Gravy: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavours and gives the hash its body.
Flour: Thickens the gravy mixture so it clings to the meat rather than running off.
Port wine: Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the gravy.
Capsicum: Contributes fresh, slightly sweet vegetable flavour and texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, port wine, capsicum, pepper, beef, flour):

Shallotfits about as well
Tomatothe original
Carrotfits about as well
Horseradishfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, port wine, capsicum, pepper, beef, 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.