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French Hash

A hash of rice, mutton, prunes, cherries, and espagnole sauce seasoned with paprika and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and mutton are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

French Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Boil the rice in a large saucepan with plenty of water.

  2. When cooked, drain off the water and allow the rice to dry.

Make the hash

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

  2. Turn down the heat and allow it to simmer gently.

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

  4. Season carefully with paprika 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 + muttontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. 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
Absorbs liquid and adds bulk, giving the hash a light, separate-grained body.
Mutton
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through gentle simmering in the sauce.
Espagnole sauce
Forms the rich brown sauce that binds and flavours the whole dish.
Prunes
Add sweetness and a soft, moist texture from prior stewing.
Preserved cherries
Add sweetness and fruity acidity that balance the savoury meat and sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer the meat gently in the sauce. Keeping the heat low lets the meat become tender and absorb flavour without toughening. A hard boil makes muscle fibres tighten and dry out, and can break the sauce.

“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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