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Beef-steak Hash

A hash made with coarsely ground shoulder steak, celery, potatoes, onions, sage, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and pepper 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 ↓

Beef-steak Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the steak coarsely.

  2. Mix the steak, celery, potatoes, onions, sage, salt, and pepper together.

Cook

  1. Pour boiling water over the mixture to cover.

  2. When partly cooked, add the butter and cook until nearly dry.

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. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Celery + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

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

  5. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shoulder steak
Provides the meaty bulk and savoury flavour that gives the hash its body.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook and absorb liquid, giving the hash its starchy, binding texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the mixture brown as the moisture cooks off.
Onions
Contribute aroma and a mild sweetness as they cook.

The step that matters

Cook until nearly dry after adding the butter. Adding butter once the mixture is partly cooked lets the fat coat the ingredients for flavour and richness. Cooking until nearly dry drives off the water from the boiled potatoes, so the hash fries rather than steams and can brown.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, potato, sage, pepper, butter):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, potato, sage, pepper, butter. 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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