Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Beef Hashed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and slice the onion.
Cut the beef into small slices and season with salt and pepper.
Cook
Melt the butter in a pan and fry the onion until soft.
Add the jelly from the meat or make a gravy if needed.
Once the gravy and onions have boiled, add the beef and Worcestershire sauce.
Heat through and serve.
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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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Roast beef
- Provides the main meat and bulk of the hash.
- Spanish onion
- Softens and sweetens as it fries, adding flavour to the hash.
- Butter
- Fat for frying the onion, adding richness and browning.
The step that matters
Fry the onion until soft. Cooking the onion slowly in butter until it softens lets its sugars develop sweetness. If it is rushed or left to brown too hard, it can turn bitter and dominate the dish.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, sauce, pepper):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
- Potatofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, sauce, 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.
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