Chop the meat fairly fine with a knife rather than put it through the grinder. Combine the potatoes and onion with the meat and add a few good grinds of black pepper and the nutmeg. Blend well and allow to rest in the refrigerator several hours or overnight. When ready to cook, melt just enough butter or beef drippings in a heavy skillet to cover the bottom—4 to 6 tablespoons. Add the hash and press down somewhat firmly. When the hash begins to develop a crust on the bottom, turn with a spatula so that some of the crust is brought to the top. At this point many people add about ½ cup of heavy cream or some boiling water, which enables the bottom crust to form more quickly. I prefer to cook the hash slowly to develop the crust, turning it several times. When it has crusted nicely, loosen it with a spatula, fold it once, and turn it out on a platter, crusty side up. Serve with poached eggs, toast, and chili sauce.

Variations:

Some recipes include finely chopped green pepper, to be added to the corned beef along with the onion.

Red Flannel Hash. Beloved of New Englanders, this is a corned beef hash to which one adds coarsely chopped cooked beets to taste before crisping in the skillet—not pickled beets, but preferably leftover beets from the boiled dinner.