Why it works: Mushroom and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Hash Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a stew-pan, combine broth or water, mushroom ketchup, and saved beef gravy.
Add finely sliced onion and boil for about 10 minutes.
In a basin, mix flour with a little water to form a paste.
Stir the paste into the broth and boil for 5 to 10 minutes.
Rub the mixture through a sieve and set aside.
Finish and serve
Warm the cooked beef in the sauce before serving.
Add chopped parsley, port wine, or currant jelly just before serving if desired.
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.
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Mushroom + beeftop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,232 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,632 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 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
- Flour
- Mixed with water into a paste, it thickens the broth into a smooth sauce.
- Beef gravy
- Adds concentrated beefy flavour and body to the sauce.
- Mushroom ketchup
- Adds deep, savoury umami flavour to the sauce.
- Onion
- Contributes aromatic sweetness and savoury depth as it simmers in the broth.
The step that matters
Stir the flour paste into the broth. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps; mixing it smooth with a little cold water first lets the starch disperse evenly, so the boiling sauce thickens without lumps.
Swap the parsley
The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, ketchup, beef, onion, flour, wine, port wine):
- Thymefits better
- Garlicfits better
- Celeryfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, ketchup, beef, onion, flour, wine, port wine. 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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