Name: Beef Hash
Ingredients: 1 pint chopped corned or fresh beef; 1½ pounds boiled and chopped potatoes; ½ cup broth (optional, if not used for soup); 1 teacup water (if needed); Salt and pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup milk

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Beef Hash

Ingredients

1 pint chopped corned or fresh beef
1½ pounds boiled and chopped potatoes
½ cup broth (optional, if not used for soup)
1 teacup water (if needed)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup milk

Directions

Prepare

Chop the cooled beef finely.
In a bowl, combine the chopped beef and chopped potatoes.

Cook

If using fresh meat and broth, add a little broth; otherwise, add water.
Season the mixture with salt and pepper, and add butter.
Let it stew and fry slightly.
Before serving, stir in the milk and cook until heated through.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 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

Beef: Provides the main savory, meaty flavor and the bulk of the hash.
Potatoes: Add starchy body and bulk, soaking up the juices and helping the hash hold together.
Butter: Adds richness and helps the mixture brown lightly as it fries.
Milk: Adds moisture and creaminess when stirred in and heated through at the end.

“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.