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Mississippi Baked Hash

A baked hash of cold beef, stale bread, egg, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mississippi Baked Hash

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Hash the cold beef finely.

  2. Crumble an equal amount of stale bread or biscuits.

Mix

  1. Add the beaten egg, sweet milk, salt, pepper, and thyme to the crumbled bread.

  2. Melt the butter and stir it into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until set.

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 + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Beef + thymetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,051 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

Cold beef
Provides the main savory meat flavor and bulk of the hash.
Stale wheaten bread or biscuits
Absorbs the milk and egg so the hash holds together and stays moist.
Egg
Binds the mixture and sets during baking to give it a firm, sliceable structure.
Sweet milk
Moistens the crumbs and adds richness while the custard-like binder sets.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The egg proteins must coagulate fully for the hash to hold its shape when cut. Underbaking leaves a loose, wet center, while the mixture needs to be taken out before it dries and toughens.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, wheaten bread, egg, milk, pepper, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, wheaten bread, egg, milk, 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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