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Bef Hash Au Gratin

A baked hash of cold beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,340 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bef Hash Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold beef finely, removing any string and tough skin.

  2. Season the beef with salt and pepper, then mix with an equal amount of mashed potatoes.

Make the sauce

  1. In a frying pan, combine gravy, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.

  2. If you don't have gravy, use boiling water and butter instead.

Heat and serve

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the meat and potatoes.

  2. Toss and stir until heated through and bubbling.

  3. Serve on a stone-china dish or a chafing dish platter.

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 + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,340 recipes

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

  2. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

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

Cold boiled or roast beef
Provides the main meaty body and savoury flavour of the hash.
Mashed potatoes
Bulks out the hash and gives it a soft, binding texture.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savoury depth that coats the meat and potatoes.
Worcestershire sauce
Adds a savoury, tangy note that deepens the overall flavour.
Mustard
Adds a sharp edge that balances the richness of the meat and gravy.

The step that matters

Toss and stir until heated through and bubbling. Potato starch and the thickened sauce can stick and scorch on the pan base. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and keeps the hash from burning.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, potato, sauce, 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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