Name: An Excellent Hash of Cold Beef
Ingredients: 1 slice of butter; 2 teaspoons minced herbs; 1 onion (or 2-3 shallots), finely chopped; 1 tablespoon flour; ¾ teaspoon black pepper; 3 cups broth or gravy; ½ cup mushroom catsup; cold cooked beef, cut into pieces; fried or roasted sippets (bread pieces)

Why it works: Mushroom and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

An Excellent Hash of Cold Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

Melt the butter in a thick saucepan over medium heat.
Add the minced herbs and chopped onion or shallots; cook until lightly browned.
Stir in the flour and black pepper, then pour in the broth or gravy.
Let it boil gently for 15 minutes, then strain the mixture.

Finish and serve

Add the mushroom catsup and the cold beef; keep it by the fire until heated through, but do not let it boil.
Place fried or roasted sippets in a hot dish and serve the hash immediately.

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.

Mushroom + beeftop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds richness and flavour to the base of the sauce.
Onion or shallots: Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as they brown in the butter.
Flour: Thickens the broth or gravy into a sauce that coats the beef.
Broth or gravy: Provides the liquid that becomes the body of the hash.
Mushroom catsup: Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the sauce.
Cold cooked beef: Provides the main protein, warmed through in the sauce.

The step that matters

Keep the beef below a boil. Once the cold beef is added, boiling would toughen the meat and can make the sauce break or turn grainy, so it should only be heated gently until warm throughout.

Swap the onion

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

Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits about as well
Tomatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, mushroom, beef, bread. 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.

Brown Bread461 recipes

Roast Beef211 recipes

Beef Loaf175 recipes

Corned Beef87 recipes

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An Excellent Hash of Cold Beef