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Corned Beef Au Gratin
Brown in a saucepan for five minutes one sound white onion with one tablespoon butter. Add one pound of cooked and finely chopped corned beef and four cold, boiled potatoes chopped same way as the beef; moisten with a good half pint white broth. Season with a half teaspoon white pepper and saltspoon grated nutmeg; mix well, cover the pan, cook on the range for ten minutes, lightly mix, then set to bake for thirty-five minutes. Remove, transfer it into a baking dish. Mix on a plate two tablespoons of bread crumbs with a tablespoon of melted butter, divide it on the hash, place in the oven to bake again for fifteen minutes. Remove and serve.
A straightforward corned beef hash finished under a buttered crumb crust. The only real decisions the original leaves to you are the oven temperature and how much salt, if any, to add.
- Do not add saltGo easy on salt -- the seasoning list gives pepper and nutmeg only, and a pound of corned beef carries plenty of salt on its own. Taste at the end of the ten minutes on the stove and adjust only then.
- White brothA light stock, veal or chicken rather than beef. A good half pint is a generous cup, about 250 ml. Unsalted or low-sodium stock is safest here, for the same reason you go easy on the salt.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is roughly a quarter teaspoon. The half teaspoon of white pepper is assertive by modern taste; a quarter teaspoon is a safer starting point if you are unsure.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given. Bake the covered pan at 350F for the thirty-five minutes, and give the crumbed top the same 350F for its final fifteen minutes, or run it under the broiler for two or three minutes if it has not colored.
- Keep it coveredThe recipe only specifies the cover for the ten minutes on the range and is silent about the bake; keeping it covered is the safer reading, since otherwise the cup of broth evaporates and the hash dries out before the crust goes on. Uncover when you add the crumbs.
- Chop, do not processBoth beef and potatoes are chopped by hand, finely but not to paste. A food processor turns boiled potato gluey and the whole dish sets into a solid block.
- The onionChop the onion first; the recipe does not say so, but the finished hash assumes it. The instruction is to brown it for five minutes in butter -- take it to a light gold rather than a deep colour, which suits the pale, nutmeg-scented character of the dish.
- YieldFour servings as a main course with a green vegetable, six as a side or supper dish.
This is the classic French treatment of leftovers dressed up for an American ingredient: an au gratin is defined by its crust, from the French gratter, to scrape, and the buttered crumb topping browned in the oven is the whole point of the name.