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Corn Beef Hash

A hash of corned beef and mixed vegetables sautéed in drippings and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Corn Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hash

  1. Chop the corn beef and mixed vegetables together until fine.

  2. Season with a little salt and pepper, then moisten with stock or gravy.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon of drippings in a frying pan.

  2. Add the hash and cook until brown.

  3. Cover the top with a plate and quickly turn the hash into it by flipping the frying pan upside down.

  4. Add another tablespoon of drippings to the pan and brown the hash on the other side.

  5. Remove to a hot platter and garnish with pickles or parsley.

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

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

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Corn + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,028 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Corn + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together943 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

Corn beef
Provides the main meat flavour and the substance of the hash.
Mixed vegetables
Add bulk and moisture, and their sugars help the surface brown.
Drippings
Fat that fries the hash and builds a crisp, browned crust.

The step that matters

Turning the hash in the pan. The hash is held together only by its moisture and browned crust, so it can break apart when flipped. Covering it with a plate and turning quickly keeps it in one piece, and the second browning gives the other side the same crisp crust.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, beef, pepper):

  1. Basilfits about as well
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Cuminfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, beef, 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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