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Hash

A dish of chopped potatoes, ham, onion, pepper, and salt cooked together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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

Prepare

  1. Chop the potatoes and ham into equal parts.

  2. Finely chop the onion.

  3. Season the mixture with pepper and salt to taste.

  4. If the ham is not fatty enough, add a little suet or fat.

Cook and serve

  1. Grease a skillet to prevent scorching.

  2. Cook the mixture thoroughly and serve 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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Ham + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the hash and turn tender and starchy as they cook.
Ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and meaty texture to the hash.
Onion
Adds aroma and sweetness as it softens and browns in the fat.
Suet or fat
Supplies fat for cooking and browning, and keeps the hash from sticking or scorching.

The step that matters

Grease a skillet to prevent scorching. Potatoes and ham are starchy and sugary at the surface, so without enough fat they can stick and scorch before the inside is cooked through. A well-greased pan lets the mixture brown evenly.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, onion, pepper):

  1. Mustardfits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, 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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