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Meat Hash

A dish of chopped cold meat mixed with potatoes, seasoned, and cooked slowly in a pan with butter or drippings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dredge chopped cold meat with salt and pepper.

  2. Mix in chopped cold potatoes or mashed hot potatoes, using one third meat to two thirds potato.

Cook

  1. Place the mixture in a frypan with a little water and stir in butter or beef drippings.

  2. Heat slowly, stirring often, until warmed through.

  3. Cover and let it stand on a moderately hot part of the stove for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, fold the hash like an omelet and dish it up.

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 + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,777 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

Cold meat
Provides the savory, meaty base that gives the hash its flavor and bulk.
Potatoes
Supply starch and bulk, binding the hash and giving it a soft, moist texture.
Butter or beef drippings
Adds fat for richness and helps the hash brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Heat slowly, stirring often. Gentle heat warms the mixture through without scorching the bottom before the rest is hot. Frequent stirring spreads the fat and moisture evenly, so the hash heats uniformly.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Mustardfits less well

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