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To Hash Beef

A hash of beef simmered with herbs, onion, wine, and vinegar, then thickened with butter, flour, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Hash Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. If using raw beef, hang it until tender.

  2. Slice the beef thinly.

Make the gravy

  1. Place the beef in a stewpan with enough water to cover it, sweet herbs, onion, pepper, and salt.

  2. Cover the stewpan.

  3. Simmer until tender.

  4. Add port wine and shalot vinegar.

  5. Warm the mixture.

  6. Strain the gravy through a fine sieve to remove herbs and vegetables.

  7. Return the gravy to the saucepan with the beef.

  8. Thicken with butter kneaded in flour and brown sugar.

Finish the hash

  1. If using cooked beef, mince the shalot and onion.

  2. Fry the minced shalot and onion in butter.

  3. Add flour.

  4. Add a spoonful of gravy.

  5. Add walnut liquor or ketchup.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Add the thinly sliced beef.

  8. Heat through without boiling.

  9. Optionally, add sliced potatoes and onions.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Port wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together598 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, gentle simmering.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the gravy.
Shalot vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and, kneaded with flour, thickens it.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as it cooks with butter, giving it body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps round out the gravy's flavour.

The step that matters

Heat through without boiling. Once the sliced beef goes into the thickened gravy, boiling can toughen the meat and cause the gravy to break or separate. Gentle heat keeps the beef tender and the sauce smooth.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, meat, pepper, port wine, vinegar, butter, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, meat, pepper, port wine, vinegar, butter, flour. 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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