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Corned-Beef Hash
1 cup cold corned beef 1 cup cold boiled potatoes Salt and pepper 1 tablespoon butter Milk or stock Chop the corned beef, discarding the gristle but using some of the fat. Melt the butter in a frying pan; add the beef mixed • Fish Cutlets
The text breaks off mid-sentence (the printed page ran on to "Fish Cutlets"), but the method is standard and recoverable from the ingredient list. A few notes on quantities and technique.
- The missing liquidNo amount of milk or stock is given, and the original page is cut off before it says when to add it. For a two-cup mixture, 3 to 4 tablespoons is enough — just sufficient to bind, not to make it soupy. Hash should hold together when pressed, not pour.
- Chop, do not process"Chop" means a knife or a hand grinder. A food processor turns cold corned beef into paste, and the texture of hash depends on distinct shreds of meat against soft potato.
- Use some of the fatThis instruction is deliberate and worth following. Lean corned beef makes dry, crumbly hash; the fat carries flavor and helps the crust form.
- Salt with careCorned beef is cured in brine and is already salty. Season at the end, after tasting, rather than at the start.
- The crust is the pointPress the mixture flat in the pan over medium heat and leave it alone for 8 to 10 minutes before turning or folding. Constant stirring gives you warm hash; patience gives you the browned bottom that makes it worth eating.
- Cold ingredients matterBoth the beef and the potatoes are specified cold, meaning leftovers. Freshly boiled potatoes are too wet and break down into mush; refrigerated ones hold their shape.
- YieldTwo cups of mixture serves two as a main course, or three or four with eggs on top.
Hash takes its name from the French hacher, to chop, and it belongs to the oldest tradition in household cookery: the second appearance of yesterday's meat. Corned beef — beef cured in brine, the "corns" being the coarse grains of salt used, not maize — was a cheap, keeping meat in American households, sold in barrels and later in tins, and a boiled corned beef dinner reliably left more meat than a family could eat at one sitting.