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New York Hash

A hash of chopped cooked meat and cold potatoes sautéed in butter and water or stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

New York Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold potatoes and the cooked meat finely.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, heat the butter and boiling water or stock over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped meat and potatoes to the boiling mixture.

  3. Cook while stirring occasionally until a coating forms on the bottom of the pan, ensuring it doesn't stick.

  4. Serve 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.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 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. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat
Provides the savoury, meaty base of the hash.
Cold potatoes
Add bulk and starch that helps bind the hash as it cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the hash brown and taste rounded.

The step that matters

Cooking until a coating forms on the bottom of the pan. Stirring occasionally while the mixture cooks lets moisture evaporate and starch develop a browned crust on the base. Stirring too little can scorch the bottom, while stirring too much stops a crust from forming.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, butter):

  1. Onionthe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, 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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