What really helps making an excellent hash is an old fashioned meat grinder. If you don’t have a meat grinder, you can use the grinder attachment of a KitchenAid. You can also chop the meat, potatoes, and onions very fine with a knife, though the resulting consistency will not be as blended as what you can achieve with a meat grinder. A grinder makes a big difference here because of the way it grinds the beef into the onions and potatoes. If you don’t have a meat grinder, you can pulse a few times in a food processor, or finely chop by hand. Add the hash to the frying pan so that a half an inch of hash covers the bottom of the pan. If you have more hash to cook, do so in separate batches. Brown the hash, stirring only infrequently at first to make sure that the hash has an opportunity to brown well. As you cook the hash, add pinches of salt and fresh ground pepper. Do this a couple of times with each batch of hash. Cook for at least 10 minutes and until the hash is well browned. Serve immediately with ketchup. Old fashioned cast iron meat grinders are easy to find and cheap to buy on eBay.
