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Browned Hash

A dish of chopped cooked meat and mashed potatoes formed into cakes and browned in fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Browned Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped cooked meat, mashed potatoes, onion juice, boiling water, salt, and pepper.

  2. Shape the mixture into two small cakes.

Brown and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan and add the fat until very hot.

  2. Place the cakes in the pan and reduce the heat to brown them slowly.

  3. Alternatively, cook as one large cake and fold it like an omelet.

  4. Garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Cooked meat
Forms the main body of the hash and provides its savory flavor.
Mashed potatoes
Adds moisture and binds the mixture so the cakes hold together.
Onion juice
Adds savory onion flavor throughout the cakes.

The step that matters

Reducing the heat to brown the cakes slowly. Starting in very hot fat is needed for a crust, but the heat must then drop so the cakes brown through without scorching on the outside. Browning relies on Maillard reactions, which proceed best at moderate heat, so slow browning gives an even golden surface and a cake that is heated through.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, potato, 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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