135 replies to this topic

[David Ross]

Hmm. That hash I made yesterday might have had some nominally crispy bits, but I wasn't really shooting for "crispy". Was I supposed to?

In my mind, a traditional diner-style hash would use potatoes as the starch and be very crispy on the outer layer, soft within. But I also think adapted to today's tastes and styles, you could easily replace the hash another starch, yet still keep the crispy texture to define it as hash.

[Mjx]

Well, here's mine:




Objectively, I'd have to say the picture is not that appetizing (you should see the raw image), but the dish was actually quite tasty. We don't tend to have much in the way of leftovers, so this was a combination of a single portion of a supposedly Spanish-inspired beef stew from the January/February issue of Cook's Illustrated, combined with a half-portion of a home fry recipe from the same issue.

My idea was to do something along the lines of biksemad (which Mette mentioned, upthread), but I ran out of steam when the time came to turn the beef chunks into small dice, and I just broke/shredded them up, instead. The potatoes were crisp and caramelized on the outside, fluffy within, and the meat was moist and tender. Apparently, ketchup and HP Sauce are standard with biksemad, so my boyfriend set up small ponds of each at the edge of his plate. We had rucola with this, too.

But, does this count as hash, or did the inclusion of home fries kind of blow this out of the water?

[Chris Hennes]

Looks like hash to me.

[mgaretz]

I made hash last night too. Onion, red potatoes and corned beef. I par-bolied the potatoes and cut them into just slightly smaller pieces than MJX's. Seasoned with fresh garlic and a small amount of salt and pepper. I sautéed the onions in clarified butter added in the potatoes until they started to brown then the beef, spices and 1/2 cup of water. Cooked on fairly high heat until the water was gone and the hash was getting very crispy. Then turned for another few minutes.

It was tasty, but it didn't stick together like I thought it would. Not enough starch from the potatoes?

[heidih]

I wonder if the diner nature of this food where a flat top is generally used is an integral part of what we might call the "standard". The ingredients get tossed loosely to cook on the flat top, then moved tossed and turned as all the bits get browned, and then get pushed together into a flat cake, moved around some more for cohesion and browning on the top and bottom and then served. That is based on my limited experience of course.

[kayb]

As mentioned previously, sweet potato and pulled pork hash.



I picked up a pound of pulled pork from one of the several local barbecue emporiums (emporia?), got home, and discovered I had but one lonely sweet potato. I also had some acorn squash, so the lighter-colored chunks in the hash are that. They tasted much like a potato. Diced and fried the sweet potato and squash until brown a bit on the outside and soft within, added the chopped-up pulled pork to heat and get some crispy bits, then drizzled with No. 5 sauce that came with the pork. You've got to love a 'cue joint that has five different sauces. This one is spicy with a touch of sweet.

It was excellent.

[ChrisTaylor]

I made hash with some leftover spiced, coffee-crusted barbecue chuck. Added onions, birds eye chilli and potatoes.



Crisped up the top in the oven.

[David Ross]

I made hash last night too. Onion, red potatoes and corned beef. I par-bolied the potatoes and cut them into just slightly smaller pieces than MJX's. Seasoned with fresh garlic and a small amount of salt and pepper. I sautéed the onions in clarified butter added in the potatoes until they started to brown then the beef, spices and 1/2 cup of water. Cooked on fairly high heat until the water was gone and the hash was getting very crispy. Then turned for another few minutes.

It was tasty, but it didn't stick together like I thought it would. Not enough starch from the potatoes?

I'm thinking the reason it didn't cling together is that you used water for the liquid element rather than cream or a thick gravy that would have given your hash more body.

[ChrisTaylor]

I just used stock. Possibly the quantity has something to do with it.

[Kim Shook]

My favorite hash is roast beef hash, but one of the best I’ve ever made, flavor-wise is with Michael Ruhlman’s pastrami short ribs. Just onions, potatoes and the ribs chopped and fried in a pan:

The flavor is great, but the texture is off. It just isn’t ‘hashy’ enough. The pieces are too large and separate. To me, hash isn’t hash unless it clings together. Like Chris A, to my tastes it needs to be an amalgamation of meat and potatoes. If you can pull out each individual ingredient and lay them down in a line, it’s just chopped things that were cooked together. I really liked the looks of David’s hash in post #32. I think that I need to use his Better Homes and Gardens recipe. Unfortunately, I don’t have the 1976 edition - I’ve got a 1951 and a 1982 (the year we got married!). David, you gave great directions in that post, but could you give me a hint about proportions – meat to potato to evaporated milk?

And here’s a question that occurred to me: if you make fish hash and form it into patties and cook it crisp on either side, what’s the difference between that hash and fish cakes? Because I sometimes use mashed potatoes, but other times I use pretty chunky ‘smashed’ potatoes to make fish cakes.

[David Ross]

Here's the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, 1976 edition. (Note: the recipe calls for cooking in the oven, but as you know from my photo descriptions, I fried the hash in cakes in a pan on the stovetop).

"Best Oven Hash"
1 cup coarsely ground corned beef
1 cup coarsely ground cooked potatoes
1/4 cup coarsely ground onion
1/4 cup snipped parsely
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 6-oz can evaporated milk, (2/3 cup)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp butter, melted

Mix first 6 ingredients, 1 tsp. salt and dash pepper. Turn into 1-quart casserole. Mix crumbs and butter, sprinkle atop. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, serves 4.

[robirdstx]

Kim, thanks for asking and David, thanks for posting the proportions. I have leftover corned beef from Friday night's dinner and frozen hash brown potato patties defrosting in the fridge to use for making hash for our Sunday breakfast. I am going to use cream instead of evaporated milk. I'll report back tomorrow.

Edited by robirdstx, 18 February 2012 - 09:16 PM.

[Kim Shook]

Here's the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, 1976 edition. (Note: the recipe calls for cooking in the oven, but as you know from my photo descriptions, I fried the hash in cakes in a pan on the stovetop).

"Best Oven Hash"
1 cup coarsely ground corned beef
1 cup coarsely ground cooked potatoes
1/4 cup coarsely ground onion
1/4 cup snipped parsely
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 6-oz can evaporated milk, (2/3 cup)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp butter, melted

Mix first 6 ingredients, 1 tsp. salt and dash pepper. Turn into 1-quart casserole. Mix crumbs and butter, sprinkle atop. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, serves 4.

Thanks so much for posting this, David! I'm printing this out and will place with the pastrami short ribs recipe so that I'll remember to do it next time!

[robirdstx]

I divided my hash into two batches. The first batch was started in 3" x 1" Egg Fry Rings on a buttered non-stick griddle:



When the bottoms had browned, I removed the rings and flipped the patties:



In the meantime, I made a couple of poached eggs and then served them on top of the hash:



The second batch, I cooked free form style in a cast iron skillet:



I tossed the hash several times and continued to cook it until it was well browned:



The consensus: We prefer the free form style, as the hash was nice and crispy throughout.

[kayb]

Adding my thanks to David...will be cooking a corned beef brisket between now and St. Paddy's Day, and be assured this will be the destination for a good bit of it.

[mgaretz]

I made hash last night too. Onion, red potatoes and corned beef. I par-bolied the potatoes and cut them into just slightly smaller pieces than MJX's. Seasoned with fresh garlic and a small amount of salt and pepper. I sautéed the onions in clarified butter added in the potatoes until they started to brown then the beef, spices and 1/2 cup of water. Cooked on fairly high heat until the water was gone and the hash was getting very crispy. Then turned for another few minutes.

It was tasty, but it didn't stick together like I thought it would. Not enough starch from the potatoes?

I'm thinking the reason it didn't cling together is that you used water for the liquid element rather than cream or a thick gravy that would have given your hash more body.

Being lactose intolerant, cream is out. Anyway I took some photos of the leftovers:



And with a poached egg (dinner last night):

[weinoo]

Does bacon hash count?

[David Ross]

Looks like a delicious bacon hash to me!

[Shalmanese]

Tried to come up with a simpler way of cooking hash this morning, wanting to see if I could do it in 1 pan on the stovetop.

Procedure:

Dice some potatoes and add them in a single layer to an non-stick pan.
Add 4 tbsp of water, 2 tbsp of fat (I used duck fat) & a large pinch of salt.
Cover, turn heat to medium and let cook, shaking and stirring once every minute or so.

Total time is about 20 minutes from raw potato to hash:



The water will first steam the potatoes and then, after the water evaporates, the fat fries and crisps the outside. What you get is ultra creamy and tender centers and a pretty decent, crackly crunchy crust. I used russet potatoes this time but I feel it might actually work better with reds. I might also switch to giving them 10 minutes in the oven at the end to give it a dryer center and a slightly stronger crust but overall, it's a great way way to get hash on the table with a minimum of fuss.

Edited by Shalmanese, 27 February 2012 - 05:51 AM.

[David Ross]

Looks like a nice texture to me. I'll try your technique.

[Chris Hennes]

OK, I made what I think was a hash for lunch today:



I fried some potatoes, added onions when the potatoes were almost done, then added a large heap of leftover bolognese sauce from last week's lasagne. So, the meat was ground rather than chopped. Does that disqualify it?

[Dave the Cook]

I think that's hash, but I worry about the evident lack of ambition: that egg is not poached.

[Chris Hennes]

Caught red handed... fried in the same pan as the rest of the hash. I don't even remember the last time I poached an egg.

[Dave the Cook]

Dude. Poach an egg. Instructions here. Or here.

It really makes a difference.

[sculptor]

I had some leftover duck once so I made a hash with it which I accompanied it with a savoury leek custard (the later being an homage to a traditional Chinese dish.)

[Chris Hennes]

It really makes a difference.

In what way?

[David Ross]

I prefer a poached egg on top of hash. It's a matter of texture. Yes, a fried egg can have a runny yolk, but the white is set and browned on the bottom. I prefer the softness of the white enveloping the yolk of a poached egg.

[Dave the Cook]

David is onto something when it comes to texture and the contrast between the egg and the crispy parts of the hash. But I also appreciate the extra volume of sauce -- in the form of yolk -- that a poached egg provides.

[Kerry Beal]

A bit of fried up onion, yukon gold potato, duck fat, sous vided (I think we should coin a new term for the past tense of sous vide - sous ved!) chuck eye. Things could have been a bit crispier, and the meat chunks a bit smaller, and I was unaware until just now that the egg should have been poached - but altogether a very satisfactory dinner.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Halibut hash: Flaked grilled halibut, browned onions and par-boiled potatoes, parsley; drizzled with creme fraiche/mayo tarragon sauce, chives. Lovely browned bits. Extra sauce on side. Actually, this was quite good!

For heavier meal, would add a poached egg, but this stood on its own nicely.