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Dry Hash

A savory hash of chopped meat, potatoes, and onion, cooked in butter and water, served hot with ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Dry Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove gristle and excess fat from the meat and chop it fine.

  2. In a bowl, combine the chopped meat, cold boiled potatoes, and onion.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

Cook

  1. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add just enough water to moisten the mixture.

  2. Add a little butter and stir often until warmed through.

  3. Cover and let it cook on a moderate heat for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, run a knife under the hash and fold it like an omelet.

  2. Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

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 + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat
Provides the main savoury flavour and bulk of the hash.
Cold boiled potatoes
Supply starch and body that bind the hash and help it brown in the pan.
Onion
Adds aroma and savoury sweetness as it softens in the butter.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and helps the hash brown on the skillet.

The step that matters

Cooking the covered hash over moderate heat. Too little water or too much stirring can leave the hash dry or unevenly heated. Gentle covered cooking lets the moisture steam the mixture through while the bottom is allowed to form a brown crust.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, onion, pepper, butter, ketchup):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, onion, pepper, butter, ketchup. 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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