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French Hash

A hash of mutton, rice, prunes, and cherries simmered in Espagnole sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

French Hash

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Boil the rice in a large saucepan with plenty of seasoned water until tender, then drain and dry well.

Make the hash

  1. Cut the meat into neat pieces and add it to the hot Espagnole sauce.

  2. Allow it to simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Add the previously stewed and stoned prunes, cherries, and rice.

  4. Season carefully with paprika pepper and salt.

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. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Rice + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Rice + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,396 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Mutton + saucetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,087 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Patna rice
Starch that becomes tender and absorbs the sauce, giving the dish body.
Cold shoulder or leg of mutton
Main protein that turns tender and rich during slow simmering in the sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Brown savoury sauce that carries the flavour and moisture of the whole dish.
Preserved cherries
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity that balances the rich meat.
Prunes
Add sweetness and a soft, sticky texture as they soften in the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer the meat gently. Gentle simmering keeps the meat tender and lets its flavour blend into the sauce. A hard boil toughens the protein and can break down the sauce, so the heat must stay low.

“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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