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Fried Potato Hash

A fried dish of coarsely chopped potatoes cooked in butter or drippings with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Potato Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil and cool the potatoes with their skins on, then peel and chop them coarsely.

Fry the hash

  1. Melt the drippings or butter in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped potatoes to the pan and sprinkle generously with pepper and salt.

  3. Using a long knife, gently lift the potatoes from the bottom every minute or two to avoid mashing them.

  4. Fry until the edges are well browned, then 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the bulk of the hash and, once fried, crisp browned edges with a soft interior.
Drippings or butter
Conduct heat evenly and add fat for frying, while carrying flavor and encouraging browning.

The step that matters

Lifting instead of stirring. Lifting the potatoes from the bottom every minute or two lets the cut surfaces contact the hot pan and brown. Constant stirring or pressing breaks the pieces down into a mash and prevents the crisp edges from forming.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Carrotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper. 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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