No. 2291

Corned Beef Hash, American Style

Hachis de Boeuf Sale a l'Americaine

Put in a large frying-pan one ounce of butter; when hot add four ounces of potatoes, and six ounces of corned beef, both cut in three-sixteenths of an inch squares. Season with pepper and nutmeg, and fry, slowly inclining the pan so that the hash assumes the shape of an omelet. When a fine color drain off the butter, and turn it on to a long dish the same as an omelet.

← No. 2290 Corned Beef Hash Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2292 Hashed Chicken, Ancient Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's version is a hash in the French manner: a small, precise, omelet-shaped cake rather than a skillet full of breakfast. The proportions are given by weight and are worth respecting, since the beef outweighs the potato.

Scale and yieldFour ounces of potato and six of corned beef make one portion, or a light course for two. Multiply carefully rather than crowding a large pan; the shape depends on a thin layer.
The potatoesRanhofer's hash entries generally start from cooked potato — boiled and cooled, so they hold a clean dice — though this recipe does not say so. Raw potato cut this small may not cook through in the time the hash takes to colour.
Dice sizeThree-sixteenths of an inch is just under 5 mm, smaller than most modern hash. The fine cut is what lets the mixture bind into a cake rather than a heap.
SeasoningPepper and nutmeg only. No salt is called for because corned beef supplies plenty; taste before adding any. Nutmeg was a common savoury seasoning in nineteenth-century cooking and should be a scrape, not a spoonful.
Pan and shapeThe recipe calls for a large frying-pan, though a smaller skillet with sloping sides suits a single portion. "Inclining the pan" means tilting it and pressing the hash against the lower side with a fork or spatula so it takes an oval, tapered form; the sloped wall does the shaping.
Heat and timeFry slowly; on a modern hob that is likely to mean medium-low heat for something in the region of 12 to 15 minutes. The recipe asks only for "a fine color" on the underside while the interior stays moist; high heat browns spots and dries the rest.
Draining and turning outPour off the butter before turning out, as with an omelet: hold the dish against the pan's edge and roll the cake over so the browned face is up. Serving it in the cooking fat is what the instruction is guarding against.
Butter quantityOne ounce is two tablespoons for ten ounces of hash. It is generous, and some is poured off at the end; it serves as frying medium as much as enrichment.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer spent more than thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) is his attempt to set down the whole repertoire of that kitchen in French classical order — hence a plain American hash filed among the entrées diverses with a French title, hachis de boeuf salé à l'américaine. The "American style" tag marks it as a native dish absorbed into a French system: hachis in France meant chopped leftover meat bound with sauce, while the American version leaned on potato and a hard-fried crust. Corned beef itself was an economy of the salt barrel, beef cured with coarse "corns" of salt for keeping, and by the 1890s it was cheap, plentiful and thoroughly urban food in New York. What distinguishes Ranhofer's treatment is not the ingredients but the discipline imposed on them: weighed proportions, a measured dice, and the hash turned out shaped and drained like an omelet, fit to leave a Delmonico's kitchen.