CORNED BEEF HASH

1/2 c. chopped corned beef
2 c. chopped boiled potatoes
1 tbs. butter
4 tbs. water
Salt if needed
Pepper to taste

The best hash is made from boiled corned beef. It should be boiled very tender, and chopped fine when entirely cold. The potatoes for hash made of corned beef are the better for being boiled in the pot liquor [liquid the corned beef was boiled in.] When taken from the pot, remove the skins from the potatoes, and when entirely cold chop them fine. To a coffee-cup of chopped meat allow four of chopped potatoes, stir the potatoes gradually into the meat, until the whole is mixed. Do this at evening and, if warm, set the hash in a cool place. In the morning put the spider on the fire with a lump of butter as large as the bowl of a table-spoon, add a dust of pepper, and if not sufficiently salt, add a little; usually none is needed. When the butter has melted, put the hash in the spider, add four table-spoons of water, and stir the whole together. After it has become really hot, stir it from the bottom, cover a plate over it, and set the spider where it will merely stew. This is a moist hash, and preferred by some to a dry or browned hash.

From The Housekeeper's Encyclopedia by Mrs. E.F. Haskell.

Comment: As is often the case the amounts given in the ingredients list at the top of this recipe--written by us to modern measurements--should be taken only as approximations. Cookbooks of the 19th century described quantities in terms either of weight--no kitchen was without a scale--or measures of volume which lacked the sort of consistency we expect today. Did a teacup hold more or less than a coffee cup? How did either compare to a modern standard eight-ounce measuring cup? How big was Mrs. Haskell's tablespoon--would it hold "a piece of butter the size of a hen's egg" or "a walnut", to use two of her other favorite terms?

We are saved here because corned beef hash is a very forgiving item. Like most dishes which originated as "peasant food" it is expected that one will adapt any given making to what ingredients are on hand and how many people are to be fed.

Oh, and for anyone disconcerted by the direction to "put the spider on the fire" or feel that would be inhumane to arachnids....a spider is a cast-iron large frying pan or Dutch oven with three our four little legs on the bottom to hold it up out of direct contact with the fire. Users of modern cooking stoves are free to use regular frying pans and deal with spiders as your views on the sanctity of all life dictates.

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