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Corned Beef Hash
Chop beef; add an equal amount of cold boiled potatoes, chopped; season with salt, pepper and a few drops of onion juice.
Melt one tablespoon butter in an iron frying pan; add beef and potatoes and sufficient milk or hot water to make the mixture quite soft. Cover frying pan and cook slowly until a brown crust is formed. Turn like an omelet on to a hot platter. Garnish with parsley.
A brief, unfussy method that assumes you already have cooked corned beef and boiled potatoes on hand. Everything hinges on the crust, so resist stirring once the hash is in the pan.
- QuantitiesNo amounts are given: work from whatever corned beef you have, matched by an equal volume of cold boiled potato. About 2 cups of each, with a tablespoon of butter, fills a 10-inch pan and serves three to four.
- Onion juicePeriod cooks grated an onion and used the expressed liquid to get onion flavor without visible pieces. Grate half a small onion on a box grater and press the pulp through a sieve. If substituting minced onion, use only a small pinch: the recipe asks for a few drops of juice, not a tablespoon of onion.
- Chop, do not grindHand-chopping on a board gives the ragged texture the dish depends on. A food processor turns corned beef into paste, which will not crisp.
- The iron pan mattersCast iron holds even heat long enough to build a crust without scorching the center. A well-seasoned or heavy nonstick pan is the nearest substitute; thin aluminum will burn the bottom before the interior sets.
- "Quite soft"Add milk or hot water a few tablespoons at a time until the mixture is loose and spreadable, not soupy. Too dry and it crumbles when turned; too wet and it steams instead of browning.
- Cook slowlyLow to medium-low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, covered and undisturbed. The lid traps steam that cooks the mass through while the bottom sets into a single sheet.
- Turning it out"Turn like an omelet" means loosening the edges with a thin spatula, then folding the hash over on itself as you slide it onto the platter, crust upward. Inverting the pan over a warmed plate works just as well and is less likely to break it.
- ServingPoached or fried eggs on top are the usual accompaniment, along with the parsley the recipe calls for.
Corned beef hash is a thrift dish: the natural sequel to a boiled dinner of salt beef, cabbage and potatoes, made from what was left in the pot. The "corn" is not grain but the coarse grains of salt used to cure the beef, a usage older than the American kitchen. Its presence in a promotional cookbook issued by the Walter M. Lowney Company, a Boston chocolate manufacturer, shows how such books worked: the chocolate recipes sold the product, while a full complement of everyday meat, bread and vegetable dishes made the volume worth keeping on the shelf. The technique here of building an unbroken brown crust and folding it out of the pan is distinct from the loose, stirred hash more common now.