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Touato Hash

Touato Hash is a layered casserole of finely chopped cold meat, celery, onion, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, tomatoes, toasted bread crumbs, and butter, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Touato Hash

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Layer and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the chopped meat.

  2. Add the celery, onion, parsley, thyme, salt, and pepper on top.

  3. Cover with a layer of tomatoes.

  4. Add a layer of toasted bread crumbs.

  5. Repeat the layers until the dish is full, finishing with bread crumbs on top.

  6. Dot the top with small lumps of butter.

  7. Bake for 25-30 minutes until heated through and golden.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold meat
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its savory, meaty base.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that keep the layers juicy as they bake.
Toasted bread crumbs
Add structure to the layers and absorb juices while browning on top.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the top brown golden in the oven.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as it softens in the bake.

The step that matters

Layering the bread crumbs and tomatoes. Repeating the layers evenly keeps moisture distributed so the crumbs do not dry out or turn soggy in patches. Finishing with crumbs and butter lets the top brown properly in the oven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, celery, parsley, thyme, pepper, tomato, bread):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, celery, parsley, thyme, pepper, tomato, bread. 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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