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Beef Hash

A dish of chopped roast beef sautéed with onion in butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, and moistened with gravy or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold roast beef or beefsteak into small pieces.

  2. Fry the chopped onion in butter until brown.

Cook the hash

  1. Add the chopped beef to the pan and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Moisten with beef gravy or water and a little butter.

  3. Cook until heated through, but do not overcook to avoid toughening the meat.

  4. Optionally, let a crust form on the bottom and serve with poached eggs on top.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cold roast beef or beefsteak
Provides the meat that forms the body of the hash.
Onion
Browns in butter to add sweetness and savoury depth.
Butter
Fats the pan for frying and adds richness and browning.
Beef gravy or water
Moistens the meat so it stays tender while heating.

The step that matters

Cook until heated through, but do not overcook. Beef already cooked becomes tough and dry when heated for too long, because prolonged heat squeezes out moisture and tightens the muscle fibres. Heat only until it is warmed through.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, 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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