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Fish Hash

A fried mixture of boiled fish, potatoes, bacon, onion, and butter, finished with milk or gravy and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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. Flake the fish, removing skin and bones.

  2. Mash the potatoes and mix with the fish; season with half the parsley, pepper, and salt.

  3. Mince the bacon and onion finely.

Cook and serve

  1. In a frying pan, heat the butter and fry the bacon and onion for a few minutes.

  2. Stir in the fish and potatoes, cooking until heated through.

  3. Pour in the gravy or milk and heat thoroughly.

  4. Transfer to a dish and garnish with the remaining parsley. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold boiled fish
Forms the main body of the hash and provides its flavour.
Cold boiled potatoes
Bind with the fish and add body and softness to the hash.
Fat bacon
Renders fat into the pan that fries the onion and adds savoury flavour.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it fries, adding aroma to the hash.
Milk or gravy
Adds moisture so the hash heats through and stays tender.
Butter
Adds fat and richness for frying the bacon and onion.

The step that matters

Stir in the fish and potatoes, cooking until heated through. The fish is already cooked, so the goal is only to heat it through without drying it. Overcooking toughens fish proteins and dries the mixture, so stir gently over moderate heat.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, parsley, butter, milk, 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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