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Beef or Mutton Hash

A hash of sliced cold beef or mutton with onions, gravy, parboiled potatoes, and bread crumbs, simmered until hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef or Mutton Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Slice the cold beef or mutton very thin, cutting across the grain.

  2. Remove any hard or gristly bits.

  3. Mix the fat and lean meat together and chop fine.

Make the hash

  1. Dilute the gravy or meat juice with water and put it in a pot.

  2. Add the sliced onion and heat slowly for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in the chopped meat and heat again.

  4. Add the parboiled potatoes and stir well.

  5. Finally, add the bread crumbs and heat while stirring, keeping the pot covered.

  6. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until steaming hot and flavors blend.

  7. Serve immediately with mashed or baked potatoes.

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 + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

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

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold beef or mutton
Provides the main meat flavor and bulk of the hash.
Gravy or meat juice
Adds moisture and savory meaty flavor that coats the other ingredients.
Parboiled potatoes
Add body and starch, giving the hash its substantial texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid as they heat, helping thicken and bind the mixture.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens slowly in the liquid.

The step that matters

Heating the bread crumbs while stirring, pot covered. Bread crumbs absorb liquid and can scorch or turn gluey on the base of the pot. Stirring keeps them evenly moistened, and the cover traps steam so the hash heats through without drying out.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, potato, bread):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Leekfits less well

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