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Bbef Hash

Beef Hash is a dish of chopped beef simmered in a seasoned butter‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bbef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cook pieces of cold beef in water until tender, then let cool.

  2. Remove the solidified fat from the top of the liquid and cut the meat into small bits, discarding skin, fat, and gristle.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat until lightly browned.

  2. Stir in 2 tablespoons of flour and cook for a minute.

  3. Gradually add 2 cups of beef stock, stirring until thick and smooth.

  4. Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper, and strain if lumpy.

Combine and cook

  1. Add the chopped meat and cook slowly for 10 to 15 minutes.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main meaty texture and flavor of the hash.
Butter
Adds fat and nutty flavor when lightly browned in the saucepan.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the beef stock into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Beef stock
Supplies liquid and savory flavor for the sauce that coats the meat.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the stock. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps the starch dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

“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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