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 ↓
Hash
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Mix the minced cold meat, raw potatoes, and onion in a bowl.
Add drippings, flour, pepper, and salt to the mixture.
Bake
Transfer to a baking dish and cover with hot water.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together786 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Minced raw potatoes
- Provide starch and bulk that soften and hold the hash together as it bakes.
- Minced cold meat
- Supplies the main savory flavor and substance of the dish.
- Drippings
- Add fat and richness, carrying flavor and keeping the mixture moist.
- Flour
- Thickens the juices slightly, helping the mixture bind.
The step that matters
Covering with hot water before baking. Hot water starts the cooking and moistens the mixture so the potatoes soften evenly rather than drying or staying raw in the oven.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, flour, pepper):
- Spinachfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, flour, 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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