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Beef Hash

A hash of chopped roast or boiled corned beef mixed with mashed potatoes, seasoned with pepper and salt, and cooked in butter and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Beef Hash

Ingredients

Directions

Combine and heat

  1. In a frying pan, combine the chopped beef, mashed potatoes, pepper, salt, milk, and melted butter.

  2. Stir the mixture until heated through and smoking hot, but do not let it brown.

Shape and brown

  1. Transfer to a deep dish and shape into a hillock if stiff enough.

  2. Let a brown crust form on the bottom.

  3. Turn out onto a flat dish with the browned side up.

Coat and fry

  1. Mold the mixture into flat cakes.

  2. Dip the cakes in beaten eggs.

  3. Fry the cakes in hot drippings.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

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

  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 roast or boiled corned beef
Provides the main savory flavor and the chewy, meaty texture of the hash.
Mashed potatoes
Supplies bulk and starch that help the mixture hold together and stay tender.
Milk
Adds moisture so the mixture is softer and easier to shape.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat that carry flavor and help the bottom crust brown.
Eggs (in the method)
Bind the coating on the cakes and help them crisp when fried.

The step that matters

Let a brown crust form on the bottom. Browning develops toasty flavor through the Maillard reaction, but it needs time over steady heat without stirring. Stirring too early keeps the bottom pale, while too much heat can scorch it before the inside is hot.

“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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