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Hard-times Hash

A hash of cold meat, potatoes, bread, crackers, baked beans, egg, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Hard-times Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine cold meat, potatoes, bread, crackers, and baked beans in a bowl.

  2. Beat the egg and mix it into the meat and vegetable mixture.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and sage (or onion).

Cook

  1. Warm the mixture in milk over low heat 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.

  1. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Potato + beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together655 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Beans + sagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together113 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the mixture together so it holds its shape when warmed.
Dry bread
Absorbs liquid and adds body, giving the hash a softer texture.
Potatoes
Provide starch and bulk, adding substance and a tender texture.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture heats through softly without drying out.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, bread, beans, egg, pepper, milk):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, bread, beans, egg, pepper, milk. 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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