Bette Davis Was All About This Classic New England Hash

Bette Davis achieved immortality long before Kim Carnes wrote a song about her eyes. She's known for her iconic performances in films like "All About Eve," "The Little Foxes," and "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" She's known for her willingness to play complicated, often unsympathetic characters with a lack of vanity that was rare in Hollywood at the time. She's also known for her legendary beef with eventual "Baby Jane" co-star Joan Crawford. She's somewhat less known, however, for her ability to cook a mean corned beef hash. But while it may seem like a pretty heavy dish for such a glamorous star, it was one of Davis' favorite foods.

Davis had an abiding fondness for potatoes, and said that, for many years, she was nicknamed "Spuds" — an interesting duality for someone who chose the preferred spelling of her name from an Honoré de Balzac novel. Although she never had her own cookbook (unlike her archnemesis Crawford, who relished being a homemaker), there exists a recipe (handwritten by Davis) for "red flannel hash" — that is, corned beef hash with beets. The recipe is simple and unpretentious, consisting of little more than corned beef, boiled potatoes, and beets, but it appears hearty and tasty all the same — especially if you follow her serving instructions and put a poached egg on top.

It's small wonder that Bette Davis liked corned beef hash so much. Although it can be difficult to imagine an icon of Old Hollywood being "from" anywhere (as opposed to springing fully formed from the silver screen), Davis was born in Lowell, Massachusetts — and corned beef hash is as New England as it gets. The dish started life as a way to make use of leftovers from a 'boiled dinner' (aka a dinner consisting of leftover corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes). By the same token, you can use leftover ham in your own hash. (It's a cousin to the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner — real Irish immigrants preferred bacon and cabbage, but corned beef was cheaper in America.)

Hash as a general concept was around before corned beef hash arrived on the scene, dating back to the 18th century. But the synergy between salty meat and hearty potatoes proved difficult to beat. Nowadays, you're likely to find it in restaurants all over the country, whether in an elevated form or thrown together on a plate. If it's good enough for Bette Davis, it's good enough for me. (If you want to explore other potato recipes, we won't stop you, but we can't promise we'll call you "Spuds.")