Skip to main content
Main

Corned Beef Hash

A hash of chopped corned beef, potatoes, onion, butter, and milk or cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Corned Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cold boiled corned beef and cold boiled potatoes into small pieces.

  2. If desired, chop the onion finely.

Cook the hash

  1. In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped beef, potatoes, and onion to the pan.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then add enough milk or cream to moisten.

  4. Cover the pan and heat until hot.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  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

Corned beef
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the hash.
Potatoes
Supply starch and bulk, giving the hash its soft, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the hash brown in the pan.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and richness so the hash stays tender rather than dry.

The step that matters

Adding the milk or cream. Too little liquid leaves the hash dry and crumbly, while too much makes it soggy. Add just enough to moisten the mixture, so the potatoes and beef stay tender and hold together as they heat.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, butter, pepper, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, butter, pepper, milk. 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.

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes