No. 2290

Corned Beef Hash

Hachis de Boeuf Sale

Have four ounces of boiled potatoes cut in three-sixteenths of an inch squares, put them in a saucepan, and moisten with sufficient beef stock (No. 194a) to cover them entirely. Season with pepper and nutmeg, and half an ounce of butter; simmer until the stock is reduced; add six ounces of corned beef cut the same size as the potatoes; warm without boiling, and serve when the meat is very hot.

← No. 2289 Hash a la Sheppler-Tenderloin of Beef Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2291 Corned Beef Hash, American Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's French-style corned beef hash is a moist, stove-top hash rather than the crusted skillet cake Americans expect — no browning, no pressing, no crisp bottom. The whole point is that the meat is warmed through, never cooked again.

The hinge: never let it boilCorned beef held at a boil tightens and turns stringy. Add it off the boil, hold it at a bare steam until it is hot through, and serve at once.
Proportions and yieldFour ounces potato to six ounces beef is a meat-forward hash, and the solids come to about ten ounces — one generous plate or two small entrée servings. Scale up in the same ratio.
The diceThree-sixteenths of an inch is a scant quarter-inch dice, small and uniform. Cutting potato and beef the same size is what makes this read as one dish rather than meat with potatoes in it.
Beef stock No. 194aThe cross-reference is to one of Ranhofer's beef stocks. Any unsalted or lightly salted beef stock works; use unsalted, since corned beef brings plenty of its own salt.
Season at the endThere is no salt in the list. Taste after the beef has warmed and the stock has reduced — by then the brine from the meat has spread through the potatoes.
Nutmeg is not optional garnishA few scrapes of nutmeg with the pepper is called for here alongside the pepper, and was a common seasoning in French beef and potato preparations.
Reducing the stockCover the potatoes, then simmer until the stock is reduced. Too wet and the hash slumps; too dry before the beef goes in and it will scorch.
Choosing the meatUse cooked corned brisket, trimmed of the heaviest fat and cut across the grain before dicing. Deli corned beef is sliced too thin to dice cleanly.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working reference, which is why hash appears twice in the same section — once as hachis de boeuf salé in the French manner and once, in the very next entry, "American Style." Hash of both kinds was frugal by origin, a way of using yesterday's boiled beef, and corned beef in particular was a staple of American urban kitchens because brining kept meat sound before mechanical refrigeration was widespread. The French treatment here is the older tradition: hachis means simply chopped or minced, and such dishes were bound with stock or sauce and warmed gently rather than fried into a crust. Placing it among the miscellaneous entrées, seasoned with nutmeg and moistened with house stock, shows how a restaurant of Delmonico's standing took a leftover dish seriously enough to give it a formal recipe.