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Potato and Beef Hash

A hash of minced beef, potatoes, and seasonings, simmered in gravy or water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 235 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Potato and Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Combine minced cold beef and fat in a bowl.

  2. Add chopped cold boiled potatoes, using equal or double the amount of potatoes compared to beef.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Stir in enough gravy or hot water to moisten the mixture.

Cook

  1. Transfer to a stewpan over low heat.

  2. Dredge in a small amount of wheat flour and stir with a spoon.

  3. Cover the stewpan and let it simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Serve

  1. Serve with or without a slice of toast underneath.

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 + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

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

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

  5. Beef + wheattop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold beef
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the hash.
Cold boiled potatoes
Add bulk and starch that soften and help bind the hash as it cooks.
Wheat flour
Thickens the moisture from the gravy or water into a looser, cohesive mixture.
Gravy or hot water
Adds moisture so the mixture does not dry out while simmering.

The step that matters

Stirring during the simmer. Starches and proteins in the mixture can stick to the base of the pan and scorch over direct heat. Regular stirring keeps the mixture moving and prevents burning.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, wheat, flour, 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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