How to Make Real and Authentic Corned Beef Hash Recipe – Like it Ought to Be, Not From A Can!
Corned Beef Hash like it should be! Homemade and not from a can. Seriously, when my friends and family eat this, they are 1) hooked, 2) in disbelief they ever lived through eating the canned-versions and 3) want the recipe!
So I decided to share my corned beef hash recipe which is well over 60 years old. And it couldn’t be easier to make!
You can actually substitute leftover roast beef or ham with amazing results which I have done several times, you almost cannot tell that you didn’t use corned beef. Yes, you can make ham hash and roast beef hash – who knew?!?
Photo shown to your right has the corned beef hash with a baked ‘fried’ egg from the oven on top – oh my is it Chef Maven Delicious!
Seriously people, it’s truly amazing. I have been known to buy corned beef and cook it just for this dish.…and once you have had the real thing, you will never order it in a restaurant again, unless maybe you are at NYC’s Smith and Wolensky’s Grill located in midtown on the east side (49th & Third Avenue) who does put out a decent tasting corned beef hash – though theirs is a chopped up more than I personally like. The Grill is their ‘smaller’ restaurant which is literally right next to their main restaurant known for their amazing steaks.
This authentic and real homemade corned beef hash recipe is my mother’s recipe which I have now inherited. What makes the difference is not mincing up the corned beef so it looks like baby food. You want to see the large chunks of food and real bite sized portions. This goes for the potatoes too. This is fantastic the next day, fried up in a pan with an egg fried on top or placed back into the oven to bake eggs on top for a fancy breakfast.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups left over corned beef – diced into 1-1/2′ cubes or larger sizes (or substitute left over baked ham or roast beef
- 2 or 3 cups boiled potatoes cut into same size as your corned beef – we have used red potatoes normally – but any type of potato will do as long as they have been boiled or at the very least par-boiled.
- 1 large onion – finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 5 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 small can of evaporated milk – or 1/2 cup rich milk or cream
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- ***Equipment needed
- Glass pie pan or shallow oven-proof pan, large bowl, slow oven on 300 degrees, one lazy afternoon.
Directions:
- Grease pie pan or shallow baking dish with butter, including up the sides.
- In large bowl, add all ingredients and gently stir till combined.
- Place wet mixture into greased shallow roasting pan or the glass pie dish and place onto middle rack in the slow oven.
- Stir mixture every 30-40 minutes – gently since as the potatoes cook more, they can become very tender.
- At last 20 minutes of cooking, you may wish to push up the heat to 375 – to make your hash extra crispy.
- Serve with a large salad for dinner – or throw on eggs on top and bake for 10 minutes in oven for a great looking brunch dish!
- Voila – real and awesome corned beef hash!
The total cooking time should be about 2 to 3 hours at 300 degrees. 300 degrees is known as a ‘slow oven’ and is essential in allowing your corned beef hash to cook up slowly. Trying to cook it any faster will not allow it to properly have the flavors to meld and come on out.
I like to up the heat for the last 20 minutes, to 375 to make it extra crispy. But the slow long cooking time really allows for the moisture to evaporate leaving just the wonderful seasonings.
Check out my many other recipes at Divaliscious Dinner and Jam blog out now!
Chef Maven Leah Quinn
Chef Maven - Musings and Recipes of a Cooking Artist 
This is a most excellent hash recipe. I made it a while back with corned beef; tonight I’m making it (tripled, on two big baking pans) with 9 cups of cubed leftover fresh ham.
The canned milk/cream does a remarkable job of carmelizing everything into a very tasty state, and the oven method, stirring every half hour at 300, avoids the hazards of stuff sticking in the skillet – not to mention, a quantity like I’m making tonight just wouldn’t be practical in skillets.
Thanks very much for sharing your hash-making insights, which are in my opinion the best on the web (or anywhere else that I’ve discovered).
thank you for your lovely comments! – Making hash like this was the way I was taught – when I see forms of hash that have been ‘mutilated’ to look like mash and not hash, I simply turn my head away – it should never look like baby food! (just my thoughts) – the slow cooking really helps in crisping up those little parts without drying out the meat – I can never keep enough in the house when I make it, it goes that fast!
What a fantastic dish this was,is and will always be for me from now on. Just the concept of Baking/Roasting over the tradition frying was what caught my eye during the search for best CBH recipes. I made this last night after the previous nights (STEAMED on a steamer basket/not boiled) with homemade beef broth. Your typical Corned Beef Cabbage/Potato/Carrot/Onion Dinner. Please don’t get mad at me Maven but, the only alteration I made to your version was I didn’t have any evaporated milk, or Catchup! So as I compiled all ingredients in the mixing bowl, I substituted your two liquid ingredients with a demiglaze-ish like reduction from the steamed broth (about a 1/4cup used from the original dinner preparation. Cranked up the heat as you stated for the last 20 minutes for a nice DEEP golden brown crust on all ingredients, and I have to say, I don’t whether I will ever be able to PANFRY hash again. The rich roasted (Buttery) flavor that the 375+degree final 20 minutes is absolutely heaven.
Next time I will use the cream/catchup your option calls for. So Sorry!!! Thanks for sharing this mainstay in my repertoire…from now on!!!
I made this tonight with left over corn beef from St. Pat’s day. I was very interested in the 3 hour cooking time, and what was a an oven reduction. I tasted the mix every 30 mins as I carefully tossed it. With each tasting the flavors were better and more intense then the last 30 mins. I cooked my eggs on the side in fear that I would some how mess up the crispy consistency what was building. I served this with a sunny side up egg on top and some very lightly toasted soda bread on the side. I will remember this every time we have left over corn beef. Thanks for the recepee!
You are so welcome everyone – This is one of those lovely leftover and super easy to make tummy-warming meals, which just in fact yesterday at the grocery store, I was checking out the corned beef – not for making it on St. Patrick’s Day – but to make my beloved Corned Beef Hash!
And to those who didn’t have ketchup – you can substitute half of a small can of tomato paste mixed with the ‘milk’ or water if you have to – but there really is something about slow-roasting it with the evaporated milk or normal milk – the sugars in the milk come out so gently that they really do caramelize all that hash goodness.
Enjoy my friends, so many times my own mother has made this for Brunches along with me even making it as many times – people literally are blown away in learning what real corned beef hash is supposed to look like and taste. There are people I have shared this dish who have never tried corned beef hash and were a little leery – only to learn that they fell in love with authentic and real homemade corned beef hash.
Bravo to those who dared enter the world of eating real corned beef hash! I salute you and all of you!