Skip to main content
Main

To Hash Beef

A dish of boiled beef slices simmered with walnut liquor or catsup, wine, herbs, onion, bay leaf, cloves, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

To Hash Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the beef

  1. In a pot, add the slices of boiled beef and the walnut liquor or catsup.

  2. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes until heated through.

Make the gravy

  1. In another pot, combine water, white wine, sweet herbs, onion, and bay leaf.

  2. Season with pounded cloves and pepper, and simmer until the liquid is nearly gone, turning the beef once.

  3. Let the beef cool, then strain the gravy.

Finish the sauce

  1. Mix the gravy with a little vinegar for sauce.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

Slices of boiled beef
Forms the main body of the hash and carries the flavor of the dish.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the gravy as it reduces.
Onion
Contributes savory sweetness and body to the gravy as it simmers.

The step that matters

Simmering the gravy until nearly gone. Reducing the liquid concentrates its flavor and thickens it. If it reduces too far the beef can dry out and scorch, while stopping too early leaves a thin, watery sauce.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, white wine, onion, clove, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, white wine, onion, clove, pepper. 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.

More beef hash recipes

Corned 114Cold 44with Spaghetti 5Salt 3 See all 112 →

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes