Skip to main content
Main

Stewino, Hashing, &C

A hash of leeks, brains, meat, and spices simmered in brown gravy and finished with port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Stewino, Hashing, &C

Ingredients

Directions

Make the hash

  1. Fry the chopped leeks and lemon peel in a stew pan until nicely browned.

  2. Add the brown gravy and meat to the pan.

  3. Simmer gently for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Make the brain cakes and balls

  1. Chop the boiled brains with sage, thyme, bread crumbs, and flour.

  2. Form the chopped brains into small cakes.

  3. Fry the brain cakes until browned.

  4. Pound the hard-boiled yolks with raw yolks.

  5. Roll the mixture into small balls with flour.

  6. Add the force-meat balls to the hash 10 minutes before serving.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the port wine.

  2. Serve the hash on a dish.

  3. Arrange the brain cakes around it.

  4. Garnish with lemon.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  3. Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + sagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Leek + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together162 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Soften and brown, adding sweetness and savoury depth to the hash base.
Brown gravy
Provides the liquid body of the hash and carries the flavour during simmering.
Brains
Form the main body of the brain cakes, giving a soft, rich, binding texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the chopped brains into cakes that hold their shape.
Raw egg yolks
Bind the pounded mixture together so it can be rolled into balls.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and a rich aroma to the finished hash.

The step that matters

Fry the brain cakes until browned. Brains are soft and delicate, so they can break apart or stay pale and wet if fried too gently. Browning over steady heat sets the outside into a firm crust that holds the cake together.

“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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes