Best Spices for Hash Browns

Hash browns are grated or shredded potato fried into a crisp cake, and the classic version needs almost nothing beyond salt and pepper. Cook’s Illustrated’s “Classic Hash Browns” seasons a pound of grated russets with 1/4 teaspoon of table salt and ground black pepper and fries them in butter.¹ Everything else on this page, from garlic and onion powder to paprika and Old Bay, is an addition you can make on top of that base. Quantities appear only where a named recipe gives them.

At a glance

Seasoning	When it goes in	Job
Salt	Tossed with the dried potato before frying¹	Seasoning
Black pepper	With the salt, or ground over at the end¹	Pungency from piperine²
Garlic powder	Mixed into the potato³	Savory depth
Onion powder	Mixed into the potato³	Savory depth
Smoked paprika or paprika	Mixed into the potato³	Color and a mild pepper flavor⁴
Parsley, dried	Mixed into the potato³	Herbal note, green flecks
Cayenne pepper	A pinch, mixed in or sprinkled on	Heat from capsaicinoids⁵
Old Bay	In place of salt, or at the table	Salty, celery-led blend⁶

Two recipes, side by side

There is no single recipe for hash brown seasoning. Here are two named versions, one minimal and one built up:

	Cook’s Illustrated, Classic Hash Browns¹	Brynie Greisman, Kosher.com³
Potato	1 pound high-starch potatoes (russets or Idahos), grated coarse and squeezed dry	6 medium potatoes, grated on the large holes
Salt	1/4 teaspoon table salt	3/4 teaspoon
Black pepper	Ground black pepper, to taste	1/4 teaspoon
Garlic powder	none	1 teaspoon
Onion powder	none	1 1/2 teaspoons
Paprika	none	1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Herbs	none	1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
Fat	1 tablespoon butter	1 tablespoon avocado or olive oil
Binder	none	1 tablespoon cornstarch; 1 egg white, optional

Cook’s Illustrated tosses the fully dried grated potato with salt and pepper just before it goes into the pan, and found high-starch russets worked best.¹ Squeezing the potato dry comes first in that recipe; seasoning goes on after.¹

Garlic

Garlic (Allium sativum) and onion (Allium cepa) are both in the genus Allium, family Amaryllidaceae.⁷⁸ Garlic powder is the easy route in hash browns, and Greisman’s recipe uses 1 teaspoon for six potatoes.³

One caution from America’s Test Kitchen: garlic powder used dry, straight from the jar, has not developed its full flavor. In a mashed-potato test, dry garlic powder tasted harsh and garlicky but not particularly complex; ATK recommends hydrating it in a little water first.⁹¹⁰ ATK did not test hash browns, so whether hydrating matters as much there is not known.

Garlic salt is another option. UC Agriculture and Natural Resources makes it at home with 4 parts salt to 1 part garlic powder,¹¹ so cut back on plain salt if you use it. See garlic salt.

Onion

Onion powder goes in the same way as garlic powder; Greisman’s recipe uses 1 1/2 teaspoons for six potatoes.³ Fresh onion is the other choice: diced onion fried with the potato browns along with it, and sliced green onion or chives work as a raw topping. Those are common practice rather than tested recommendations. For the powder, see onion powder and onion salt.

Black pepper

Black pepper’s sharpness comes mainly from piperine.² Cook’s Illustrated adds ground pepper with the salt before frying.¹ Grinding more over the finished hash browns gives a fresher, sharper hit of pepper; that is our kitchen judgment.

Paprika and cayenne

Paprika’s red color comes mainly from capsanthin and capsorubin.⁴ Greisman’s recipe uses the smoked kind.³ Cayenne brings heat rather than much flavor of its own; the heat comes from capsaicinoids, mainly capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin.⁵ Start with a pinch, since no named hash brown recipe we found gives a cayenne amount.

Old Bay

Old Bay is McCormick’s Maryland seafood seasoning, sold since 1939.⁶ Its label lists celery salt (salt, celery seed), spices including red pepper and black pepper, and paprika; McCormick’s description says it combines celery salt, 18 herbs and spices, and paprika.⁶ The full spice list is not published. McCormick suggests it for fries among many other uses.⁶

Because the first ingredient is celery salt,⁶ Old Bay can stand in for the salt in hash browns rather than going on top of it. Taste before adding any more.

The cooking fat

Cook’s Illustrated fries its hash browns in butter, browning it before the potato goes in.¹ Greisman uses avocado or olive oil.³ We found no tested comparison of fats for hash browns, so the choice is taste.

Classic Hash Browns, Cook’s Illustrated (America’s Test Kitchen). americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
Black pepper, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩ ↩²
Hash Browns, Brynie Greisman, Kosher.com. kosher.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹
Paprika extract, FAO/WHO JECFA. fao.org · Regulator ↩ ↩²
Measuring Chile Pepper Heat, New Mexico State University. pubs.nmsu.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩²
OLD BAY Classic Seafood Seasoning, McCormick. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
Allium sativum L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩
Allium cepa L., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. powo.science.kew.org · Reference work ↩
Experiment: Bringing Out the Best in Garlic Powder, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
For Great Garlic Bread, Hydrate Your Garlic Powder First, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩
Garlic: Safe Methods to Store, Preserve, and Enjoy, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. ccfruitandnuts.ucanr.edu · Reference work ↩

The Best Spices for Hash Browns: From Salt and Pepper to Old Bay