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Corned Beef Hash
One and one-half pounds nice corned beef, boiled tender and chopped fine; one-third more potatoes when chopped than meat; three large onions sliced fine and browned in butter, and when tender, add the meat and potatoes, well seasoned with salt and pepper; enough water to moisten. A small red pepper chopped fine is a great improvement. It is good without onions also.
A ratio recipe rather than a timed one: the proportions are the instructions, and the only real technique is knowing when to stop stirring. Nothing here is unsafe or obsolete, but a few quantities need pinning down.
- The proportions in plain numbers1 1/2 lb corned beef gives roughly 4 cups chopped; "one-third more potatoes" means about 5 1/3 cups, or 2 to 2 1/4 lb of potatoes before cooking. The recipe does not say whether the 1 1/2 lb is weighed before boiling or after boiling and trimming.
- Boiling the beefA raw corned brisket needs 3 to 4 hours at a bare simmer, or until a skewer slides out with no resistance. Deli corned beef or leftover brisket works and skips this step entirely; if you buy it cooked, ask for it thick-cut so it chops rather than shreds.
- Chopped, not shreddedThe period method is knife work on a board or a hand chopper in a wooden bowl — irregular pieces about the size of a pea. A food processor turns corned beef into paste in three pulses, which gives you a smooth mass instead of hash.
- PotatoesBoil them whole in their skins the day before and chill; a cold boiled potato chops cleanly, a hot one collapses. Waxy or all-purpose potatoes hold their edges better than russets here.
- The hinge: leave it alone"Enough water to moisten" means a few tablespoons, just enough to keep the bottom from scorching before the crust forms. Press the hash flat in a wide, heavy skillet over medium heat and do not stir for 8 to 10 minutes, then turn it in sections. Constant stirring is the one thing that guarantees no crust.
- Browning the onionsThree large onions is a lot of onion — roughly 4 to 4 1/2 cups sliced. Take them well past translucent, 15 to 20 minutes over medium heat, until genuinely brown; they carry much of the flavour here, though the recipe says the hash is good without them.
- The small red pepperIn this period a "small red pepper" most likely means a cayenne-type pod, dried or fresh, rather than a fresh sweet pepper. A fresh red chile or a good pinch of cayenne gives the same effect.
- SaltCorned beef carries a great deal of its own salt. Season the potatoes and onions, then taste the combined mixture before adding any more.
- YieldAbout 8 generous servings. Traditionally topped with poached or fried eggs, and it reheats in a skillet better than almost anything else in the book.
Hash is a thrift dish with a name that says exactly what it is — from the French hacher, to chop. Corned beef made it into a standing American breakfast because the corning itself was a preservation method: brisket held in brine with coarse "corns" of salt, boiled in a large piece for one meal, and the remains chopped with cold potatoes for the next. The Home Cook Book (Chicago, first published 1874, with later editions) was compiled from contributions by ladies of Chicago and other cities and towns to raise money for the Home for the Friendless, and recipes like this one show the register those books worked in — no oven, no timings, no yield, just a ratio and a note on what improves it, written for someone who had made hash a hundred times and only needed reminding of the proportions. It closes with a concession: "It is good without onions also."