Corned Beef Hash

Corned Beef Hash is a type of dish which consists of corned beef and diced potatoes seasoned with herbs and spices and sometimes cooked with onions.

Hash is a type of dish which consists of diced meat and diced potatoes seasoned with herbs and spices and sometimes cooked with onions. The word came from the French verb “hacher” which means to chop but now is widely used as an English word was to describe cooking method where you “mess up a situation” or “just throwing something together”. Corned beef hash is one of the example of those “just throwing something together” meals and probably the most popular type of hash dish. Hash is usually associated with corned beef but even before corned beef was invented, hash was already served in different households in Europe and even America, usually tough meat parts like brisket are used and boiled for longer periods of time. Then World War II came and fresh meat became scarce so canned meats like corned beef was rationed, corned beef hash started to become really popular at this stage. The popularity continued on even after the war especially when a lot of countries try to recover and people are impoverished, this was a cheap alternative to fresh meat it can even be extended by adding more onions and potatoes to feed more.

In the Philippines this was also popular after the war up until now, corned beef and other American products are aplenty during the 70’s and 80’s. And for those who can’t afford them in their home country, they usually receive them as this is one of the popular home coming gift (“pasalubong“) or package sent (“padala“) back to the Philippines form their loved ones or relatives working in the US. This became a tradition and now it is very evident as corned beef hash is a very popular breakfast item back home, it is even sold in popular fast food chains where it is usually served with garlic fried rice.