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Fish Hash

A savory hash of cold cooked fish, potatoes, onion, and anchovy essence, simmered in a flour‑dripping sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fish Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and wash the potatoes, then cut them into slices.

  2. Remove the bones from the fish and break it into flakes.

  3. Peel and chop the onion.

Make the hash

  1. Heat the dripping in a pan, then add the flour and stir well.

  2. Gradually add the water, then stir in the anchovy essence, fish, potatoes, and onion.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, seasoning to taste.

  4. Pour into a pie dish without breaking the potatoes.

  5. Layer with potatoes on top.

  6. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  7. Serve.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Fish + anchovytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together637 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dish and set a sliced, starchy layer that holds its shape when cut.
Flour
Mixed into the hot dripping to form a roux that thickens the liquid into a binding sauce.
Cold cooked fish
Provides the main protein, flaked through the hash so it stays moist during simmering.
Anchovy essence
Adds a salty, savoury depth to the sauce, rounding out the flavour of the fish.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savoury flavour as it softens in the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 30 minutes. Gentle heat lets the potatoes cook through and soften without breaking apart, while the flaked fish stays tender and the sauce thickens evenly. A vigorous boil would break up the potatoes and fish.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, potato, anchovy, flour, pepper, parsley):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, anchovy, flour, pepper, parsley. 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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