Making My Mom’s Corned Beef Hash — Photos

This week’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included bran muffins for mom using her recipe, some more bread in my bread machine, chocolate buttercrunch, cooked ground beef and onions frozen in ice cube trays, my breakfast sandwiches, and the subject of this post, my version of a favourite dish my mom has made for me almost all my life, a corned beef hash using a commercial, canned, corned beef luncheon meat.

The principal differences between this version and mom’s version is that she has always used, and continues to use, commercial frozen hash brown potatoes purchased at the supermarket frozen goods section, instead of making and cooking them from fresh potatoes, and, she uses margarine instead of olive oil. She also noted the importance of not using cheap quality onion salt; my personal experiences so far in making the dish have indicated the value that onion salt itself brings to the dish. All this being said, though, my efforts have largely replicated mom’s dish to the point that my version is rather close to mom’s.

It should be noted that in this post, there is a very small number of photos which were taken either later in the evening after cooking, or the following morning, either as retakes, or to outright take some photos which I forgot to take the evening before during the cooking of the dish. Also, I made the dish at the cottage.

Making the corned beef hash:

First, a nice beer was taken out — Mons Dubbel, a Belgian-style Dubbel 8% alc/vol in a 750mL bottle, from the Belgh Brasse Brewery, in Amos, Québec:

Beer taken out

Next, the beer was poured into a glass:

Beer poured out

… and of course, right away I had to do a bit of quality control on the beer:

aaaaahhhhh ….

Now to the cooking of the corned beef hash, really, this time:

A bowl was placed on a kitchen scale, and the scale was set to zero:

Bowl placed on kitchen scale, and scale set to zero

About 900 grams, or about two pounds, of potatoes were measured out in the bowl:

About 900g of potatoes measured out

Water was placed in a pot:

Fresh water added to pot

The potatoes were peeled:

Potatoes peeled

The peeled potatoes were placed in the pot of water:

Peeled potatoes placed in pot of water
Peeled potatoes placed in pot of water

A French-fry cutter was taken out:

French-fry cutter taken out

Potatoes were placed in the French-fry cutter:

Potato placed in the French-fry cutter

The potatoes were sliced with the French-fry cutter:

Potatoes sliced with the French-fry cutter

If you don’t have a French-fry cutter, you can slice the potatoes lengthwise with a kitchen knife:

Potatoes sliced lengthwise with a kitchen knife

… and then slice the potatoes again lengthwise to make French fries:

Potatoes sliced lengthwise again to make French fries

The French fries were cut into cubes, about half an inch in all dimensions:

French fries cut into half inch cubes

The potato cubes were placed back in the pot of water:

Potato cubes placed back in pot of water
Potato cubes placed back in pot of water

The water was drained from the potato cubes:

Potato cubes drained

The potato cubes were again covered with fresh water, for rinsing the potatoes:

Potato cubes covered with fresh water
Potato cubes covered with fresh water

The water was again drained from the potato cubes, and the potato cubes were put aside:

Potato cubes drained again

Onions were taken out:

Onions taken out

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

Onions cleaned and trimmed

The onions were sliced into halves:

Onions sliced into halves

The onion halves were sliced into half-coins …

Onions sliced

… and then the onions were coarsely chopped:

Onions coarsely chopped

The onions were added to the potatoes:

Onions added to potatoes

The onions and potatoes were transferred to an electric skillet:

Onions and potatoes transferred to electric skillet

Water was measured out:

Water measured out

The water was transferred to the skillet with the onions and potatoes:

Water transferred to skillet with onions and potatoes

Onion salt was added to the ingredients:

Onion salt added to ingredients
Onion salt added to ingredients

Olive oil was added to the ingredients:

Olive oil added to ingredients
Olive oil added to ingredients

The electric griddle had been turned on by this point:

Electric skillet turned on

The water was brought to boiling:

Water brought to a boil

The electric skillet was covered:

Electric skillet covered

A timer was set to five minutes:

Timer set to five minutes

The potato and onion mix was boiled for five minutes:

Potatoes and onions boiled for five minutes

After five minutes, the cover was removed:

Cover removed

At this point, my beer glass was empty, so I refilled it with the rest of the yummy beer from the double bottle:

Beer glass refilled

While the water fraction was boiling off in the electric skillet, a can of corned beef luncheon meat was taken out:

Corned beef taken out

The can of corned beef was opened:

Can of corned beef opened
Can of corned beef opened

After a few minutes, the water fraction had begun to boil off, and the potatoes and onions began to fry:

Water fraction boiled off

The corned beef was added to the frying potatoes and onions:

Corned beef added to frying potatoes and onions
Corned beef added to frying potatoes and onions

The corned beef was broken up with a spatula / egg flipper:

Corned beef broken up with a spatula / egg flipper

The corned beef, potatoes, and onions were mixed together:

Corned beef broken up and mixed with the potatoes and onions

The corned beef hash continued to be fried and mixed:

Corned beef hash continuing to be fried and mixed

The corned beef hash was just about ready:

The corned beef hash just about ready

Once the potatoes began browning, a yummy supper was served on a plate, while the rest was placed in a container to freeze and have a lunch:

Dinner is served!

Yummy!