Hashbrowns, any way you want to fix 'em. The Waffle House ways are good, or with chunkier potatoes (my late father-in-law didn’t shred them, as in real hashbrowns, but chunked them up). Just damned good, and I could eat a couple of servings by themselves.
Chunked means they’re home fries, not hash browns. Still good, though.
Well, since dictionary definitions usually say that a hash is “diced” or “chopped” one could argue that it’s the shredded potatoes that aren’t actually hash browns.
This.
Those are home fries? I imagine “fries” to always be some type of shoestring-like shape. I would simply call that dish “fried potatoes,” or, if adding some egg, “fried potatoes with egg.”
Yep. I don’t know if it’s a particularly regional usage within the US or not, but that is what I’ve always known in the US to be “home fries.”
Reading the rest of the thread, my mistake; home fries is the chunky stuff they serve up here at non-chain diners. I will have to see if I can get home fries (shredded) at Denny’s here.
You people still don’t get the corned beef hash hierarchy. Let’s say I’m in a typical diner in New Jersey:
Me: hey toots, gimme some of them scrambled eggs, will ya!
Waitress: you got it, bub. What kinda toast ya want with em?
Me: Pumpernickel, and put it down twice, I like it crunchy.
Waitress: Potatoes?
Me: *Yeah, home fries, real home fries, none of that hash brown crap. *
Waitress: Meat?
Me: Yeah, you betcha, whaddaya got?
Waitress: bacon, sausage links or patties, scrapple, corned beef hash…
Me: *Gimme that there corned beef hash…no on second thought gimme scrapple, cut thick and well done. Make it snappy, ok toots? I don’t got all day to be flappin my lips with you. *
So you see, breakfast meat, of any type, including corned beef hash, is just treated like any other side dish to the incredible, edible egg.
Maybe in some weird little countries, like England, they call corned beef hash the main course, but not here in the good ol’ US of A. Those daffy English even put their mash potatoes on top of their ground meat and gravy—everybody in sane countries knows the meat and gravy goes on top.
Home Fries: To fit my stringent criteria, in order to legally be called “home fries” you need, at a bare minimum to include both potatoes and onions. If you leave out the onions, you just have fried potatoes. If you leave out the potatoes, you just have fried onions. If you leave out both the onions and potatoes, you have salt and pepper floating in a tablespoon of hot lard (which I understand is an English delicacy).
Of course, I go all the way with my home fries (…no, not in a sexual way): potatoes, onion, garlic, parsley, bell pepper, paprika, salt and pepper, fried in lard, not icky vegetable oil. Now, I’m hungry.
Ok, I found proof. Click on this typical Diner menu link. Now click on the picture of the sage. It won’t bite; it’s just a PDF breakfast menu. What’s the first item on the menu? That’s right, eggs! It’s the main event.
Do you see corned beef hash listed anywhere on the menu as a main dish? No, you do not. Maybe they don’t have corned beef hash you surmise?
Wrong.
Scroll down to where it says “Side Orders.” Side Orders. Side! What’s listed 7th under Side Orders? That’s right, corned beef hash. Hell, it didn’t even make it to the top half of the Side Order list; how pathetic is that!?!
Case closed. What do I win? A free breakfast?
Hmm, 3am…that’s a good time for breakfast.
<big snip>
Sweet, sweet vindication; thank you, Tibby.
Told ya’ll you hadn’t heard the last of this. 
Exactly, so taking the phrasing of the question literally, even though I prefer corned beef hash as a meal, as a side, I would go with hash browns. If I’m having steak, ham, eggs or some other protein, having corned beef hash as well is overkill.
Hash Browns for me, with horseradish, or possibly sour cream if I’m in that mood.
CBH is less then the sum of it’s parts. Save the Corned beef for a sandwich at lunch, put the Potatoes in hash browns,and put the eggs, onions,and peppers with Chorizo and cheese next to the Browns.
Um, why did you pick as your example of “hash browns” the pre-formed McDonalds version, that is basically a big, flat tatertot?
Shouldn’t you at least pick some diner cooked version, like IHOP or Waffle House or Denny’s make? You know, scrambling hashed potatoes on a skillet/grilltop?
For my tastes, the “home fries” you link are ruined by the peppers on them. I want fried potatoes, but not with peppers.
Hey, don’t diss the McDonald’s version of “hash browns”! It’s one of the few things I like from Mickey D’s (even if they’re really more potato cakes than hash browns).
That being said, I prefer my hash browns shredded. Home fries are okay but a different type of potato dish. Likewise, corned beef hash is okay but really different from hash browns.
Hash browns are always good but I especially like them with Tabasco and, if I’m feeling especially reckless about my health, sausage (or white) gravy.
If I get breakfast from McDonald’s, I usually end up pitching the “hash browns.” That stuff is vile.
As long as it’s just one meal, definitely the corned beef hash. But I would miss hashbrowns if I couldn’t have them anymore. It’s just that I’ve had way too many of them lately, and I think of corned beef hash as a treat.
My favorite way to cook them is to add some scrambled egg to stretch it further. It still tastes the same, but a little bit lighter and fluffier.
I’m with NDP on this one. Love the things. Big ol’ tater tots in patty form. Perfectly crisp outside, defined potato-y middle (as in, not mush.) it’s only once in a long time treat for me, though. You want to talk an about an abomination, try the Dunkin Donuts hash brown, which are like smashed tater tot coins, have some funky seasoning on it, and almost every time I’ve been served them they were a greasy, soggy mess. Blech.
I’m in the “corned beef hash is the main event” school. I like it, but it’s awfully rich, and I eat it rarely, as a treat.
Hash browns are a side. So, not fungible with corned beef hash. Really, it’s a mistake to compare any meat to any potato at breakfast. (Even though the bacon and sausage are sides.)
Hash browns are okay so long as they don’t have anything nasty like peppers in them. They need to be crispy to be palatable, though. Soggy, greasy shredded potato is not a food item.
Another vote for corned beef hash, served up with a fried egg and some Tabasco. Not that I have it more than once a year or so.
For the record, I’ve always thought of it as a side, although logically I have to agree that better fits the ‘main dish’ slot.
Hash browns, in my view, are the lowest form of potato dish. My personal potato hierarchy (breakfast division) goes something like this:
Home fries
Potato pancakes
tater tots
Mickey D ‘hash browns’
all other hash browns
My point is they are pre-fab stuff, rather than fresh cooked. Tibby is trying to slander all hash browns by saying that McDonalds’ version is typical, when to me, McDonalds’ version is as much an outlier as this is to “home fries”.
By the way, googling “home fries”, I came across this page weighing in on this thread topic, with the vote going to hash browns. The author includes the patty version, the grilled version, and “home fries” in his comparisons, with pictures. That’s a much fairer picture for hash browns.
I think that’s the biggest complaint people have with hash browns, the consistency is often harder to get right, and one order will be soggy and greasy and mushy while another order will be fried too dry, and it’s hard to find the perfect mix of potato, fried crisp, without too much grease.
And some people like grease.