Name: Hash
Ingredients: 2 cups cold corned or roast beef; 1 cup mashed potatoes; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Hash

Ingredients

2 cups cold corned or roast beef
1 cup mashed potatoes
pepper to taste
coarse sea salt to taste

Directions

Remove fat, skin, and gristle from the beef.
Mince the beef in a wooden tray until pieces are no larger than ⅛ inch.
In a bowl, mix the minced beef with the mashed potatoes until smooth.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, adjusting for corned beef.

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.

Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

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