Definitive Corned Beef Hash Recipes

[Chris Amirault]

I just corned some brisket and, while doing so, discovered that my entire family apparently hates corned beef. We'll get into that craziness in another topic, but, meanwhile, I've sliced up about half of it for some sandwiches on rye with good mustard and a half-sour for my lunch this week. I'm thinking that I'll use the rest of it in corned beef hash to have with poached eggs, something I adore but have very rarely, only at one restaurant that barely meets my standards for hash (the embarrassingly named J. P. Spoonems in Cranston RI).

So I'm looking for a definitive home recipe for corned beef hash, one that uses "fresh" (not canned) corned beef, that includes merely meat, onions, potatoes, and possibly herbs or spices, and is cooked to produce crispy bits mixed into a hash in which retains distinct components of each of the three central elements. I've turned to my cookbooks, and here's what I've found:

• As is their wonderful wont, Jane and Michael Stern, in Real American Food, follow the New England standard: cut up last night's boiled dinner, render some salt pork, and "dump in chopped dinner." Crustify it in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, flip, cook other side, serve.
  Craig Clairborne, in the NY Times Cookbook, gussies it up with celery (heresy), green pepper (idiocy), and parsley (lunacy).
  The Rombauer/Beckers in Joy of Cooking follow the Sterns and stick to the basics -- though they're in the parsley camp as well.
  Mark Bittman in How to Cook Everything adds liquid, suggests a non-stick pan, suggests broiling in another pan when the non-stick pan doesn't work, and, bizarrely, omits onions.
  The Gourmet Cookbook uses russet potatoes, red bell peppers, and cream. They might as well call it slithy toves after all that.
  Jean Anderson in The Doubleday Cookbook adds parsley (I give up) and, to compensate for underseasoned corned beef, no doubt, Worcestershire sauce.
  

There's near universal agreement that the potato:beef ratio should be 1:1, that the potato cubes should be 1/2 inch, and that pork fat and/or butter is, as always, your friend. Other than that, it's a mostly freak show out there.

I'll be going for a basic beef, onion, and potato hash with salt, pepper, and whatever lovely fat I can find around the house, and I'll try to document it here. But there are so many issues to decide: dice or shred the beef? what kind of potatoes? how well does it freeze? will one's grandparents roll over in their Maine-clay graves if you add fresh thyme?

What's your say on the matter?

[Shalmanese]

Cold baked potatoes make the best corned beef hash. Just pop a few extra potatoes in the night before, whole.

[JAZ]

In A Real American Breakfast, Cheryl and Bob Jamison use slightly more corned beef than waxy red potatoes, together with a medium onion, all finely diced. They use a combination of butter and oil, which doesn't seem right; seasonings are black pepper and 2 teaspoons yellow mustard. I don't know how traditional the mustard is, but it seems like a good match.

They also call for a cup of the liquid from cooking the corned beef, or beef broth. The idea seems to be that you it covered with the liquid so that it coheres, then cook it uncovered to get a crust.

I've never made this; I've actually never made any corned beef hash. But what I have made from this book has been good and worked well.

[BarbaraY]

I think you're correct in using only corned beef, potatoes, and onion diced small. Bacon drippings are my fat of choice. I like to add a little beef broth to get it to stick together and then let it brown till crispy. Make dents in it and drop in eggs; cover until eggs whites are set but the yolk is runny.

Parsley is OK but please no bell pepper.

Edited September 23, 2007 by BarbaraY (log)

[snowangel]

My circa 1952 church cookbooks listed corned beef, leftover baked potatoes, chopped onions, salt, pepper and thyme (optional). Fat of choice was lard, but this book is from farm country. Cook in a cast iron skillet (would have been the skillet of choice for a Nebraska farm wife).

I'd imagine the roots of this dish are a vehicle for leftovers, and I'd bet if you asked 25 people how they make it, you'll probably get 25 different answers.

[Lilija]

I make this just about every time I make a boiled dinner, and I use whatever was in the dinner pot, as well as onions, pepper, maybe some paprika, maybe some red bells, and thyme.

I tried the cream not too long ago, and I gotta say, it made it moister, more flavorful, and it developed a deeper crust, like the cream married all the flavors, and made it a dish, instead of a buncha little particles. It's not actually creamy, or saucy, the cream all absorbs into the potato. I've also heard of adding a bit of gravy from last night's dinner, and that works too. You need something to tie it all together.

I think the "hard and fast" rules of hash sorta go against the very nature of the dish. It's like fried rice, it's a great breakfast, of last night's leftovers. Not only will 25 people make it differently, I've made it at least 25 different ways, if not more. My best hashes have bits of turnip, whispers of sauteed shredded cabbage, too much meat, and loads of black pepper.

There's red flannel hash, too, with beets...so, is that traditional or what?

[Chris Amirault]

Good points, Lilija, so I changed the title to be more ecumenical, even if I still think that this cream idea is wack.

I'm certainly not going for traditional here (though I think that red flannel is absolutely traditional). I'm going for a dish that brings out the flavors of quality corned beef and has that textural wonderfulness that good, simple hash always has.

I'm leaning toward bacon grease, 1/2" dice onion and potatoes, slightly shredded, slightly diced beef, and low and slow. I'll keep a bit of the braising juice near the stove in case this liquid idea seems to make sense.

[melkor]

Render some of the fat from the corned beef and cook in that, add some paprika and garlic - otherwise your plan sounds fine.

[Anna Friedman Herlihy]

Good points, Lilija, so I changed the title to be more ecumenical, even if I still think that this cream idea is wack.

I'm certainly not going for traditional here (though I think that red flannel is absolutely traditional). I'm going for a dish that brings out the flavors of quality corned beef and has that textural wonderfulness that good, simple hash always has.

I'm leaning toward bacon grease, 1/2" dice onion and potatoes, slightly shredded, slightly diced beef, and low and slow. I'll keep a bit of the braising juice near the stove in case this liquid idea seems to make sense.

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I always make hash a day or so after a corned beef (well, that is if my husband hasn't scarfed up the leftovers before I get to them). Everything diced. I use a bigger dice than 1/2" (maybe 3/4"?--not as big as an inch though). Fried in lard (or oil if no lard is available--I personally don't think butter tastes right for hash). And definitely low and slow. I start the potatoes and onions first, and when they are about halfway done, add the meat (I find the meat dries out too much if you put it in at the beginning).

In my opinion, if the meat is properly seasoned, all it needs is a bit of salt and pepper on the potatoes and onions before adding the meat.

As for your earlier question re: freezing. I did do some experiments with this, hoping to have better corned beef hash at hand than the canned stuff. I haven't had a ton of luck with this, but a home version of IQF works fairly okay, with par-boiled potatoes. But it's not really worth the effort. I find the meat itself freezes fine if vacuum sealed. So I guess if I had a bunch of leftover (rarity in this house), I'd just cut up the meat and freeze it, and then make it with fresh potatoes and onions.

The red flannel version is perhaps my favorite breakfast food!

[Lilija]

Render some of the fat from the corned beef and cook in that, add some paprika and garlic - otherwise your plan sounds fine.

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Oh yeah, that sounds perfect. I like a little bit more flavor and substance than potato and onion, so I would throw in some diced roasted beets, just a little 1/4-1/3 the ratio of potatoes. It balances out the salty beef, rounds the flavors out, without taking away from the simplicity.

The shreddy-diced beef is exactly right, I think. It's not perfect little cubes, but also not long strands.

You really sound like you've got the perfect hash, here.

About the cream? Don't knock it, think of it as "low fat butter"

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

I'm kind of lazy when I make corned beef hash.

I shred or dice the leftover corned beef, and add it to frozen potatoes o'brien that is about 3/4 way cooked.

[Kouign Aman]

Beef fat.

[LindaK]

I tried the cream not too long ago, and I gotta say, it made it moister, more flavorful, and it developed a deeper crust, like the cream married all the flavors, and made it a dish, instead of a buncha little particles.  It's not actually creamy, or saucy, the cream all absorbs into the potato.  I've also heard of adding a bit of gravy from last night's dinner, and that works too. You need something to tie it all together.

Good points, Lilija, so I changed the title to be more ecumenical, even if I still think that this cream idea is wack.

Nothing wack about it. The original edition Fanny Farmer cookbook calls for cream to tie all together exactly for the reasons Lilija describes. I've tried it, it works beautifully, just keep the amount minimal. It should still border on crumbly, barely hold together. And yes, lots of black pepper, but please, no bell pepper of any variety. No thyme! If you must have green in this dish, a little parsley perhaps.

A good corned beef hash is a wonderful thing.

[Jamie Lee]

Whatever recipe you use, serve it with a killer chipotle-ketchup... Ketchup, chipotle chile (minsed), generous amount of adobo sauce, lots of lime juice, s&p, a bit of palm sugar... egads - heaven!

[Chris Amirault]

One large onion sauteed in bacon grease, 3 cups potato, 3 cups corned beef, salt, pepper, thyme, and liquid from the corned beef braise as needed:

It's just wonderful, with the flavors of the corned beef really coming through. I think that the key for me is treating the hash a bit like cassoulet, but instead of pushing down the crust as with the beans, you scrape and flip to bring the crust into the hash mixture. Divine.

[Toliver]

It's just wonderful, with the flavors of the corned beef really coming through. I think that the key for me is treating the hash a bit like cassoulet, but instead of pushing down the crust as with the beans, you scrape and flip to bring the crust into the hash mixture. Divine.

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Ah, the crust! A touch of the divine in a basic dish. If you ever pan fry it, you can get a good crust in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet.

[Chris Amirault]

That's exactly what I used: medium heat, had a good fish turner out to scrape 'n' flip, added the liquid now and again.

[gfweb]

I've been making a quick hash for the past couple weekends. Diced onion, pre-microwaved diced yukon golds, diced corned beef in 1:2:2 ratio. Salt, pepper. Sauteed in 1 pat butter till all are browned, then tossed with 1-2 tbsp ketchup (Hunt's) depending on how much I'm making and sauteed another 30 sec. Takes about 10 min all together.

Not quite legit corned beef hash, the crust is deficient, but real tasty and quick.

[Katie Meadow]

What about par-boiling or pre-cooking the potatoes? My Dad used to mince the potato into teensy perfect dice, smaller than 1/4 inch, and I don't recall him par-boiling, but the only time I ever tried making hash I partially cooked Yukon Golds. So if you use raw, when do you add them? When the onions just start to get golden?

[gfweb]

What about par-boiling or pre-cooking the potatoes? My Dad used to mince the potato into teensy perfect dice, smaller than 1/4 inch, and I don't recall him par-boiling, but the only time I ever tried making hash I partially cooked Yukon Golds. So if you use raw, when do you add them? When the onions just start to get golden?

I microwave the potatoes after dicing at about 1/4". This way they cook up as fast as the meat. Onions first in the pan, microwaved pots and corned beef after about 45sec. Flip a few times till lots of browning, then the tbsp ketchup.

Edited February 21, 2011 by gfweb (log)