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Potted Chicken

A preserved chicken dish where cooked chicken is pounded with butter and spices, then packed in jars and covered with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Potted Chicken

Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Potted Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the chicken meat into small pieces.

  2. Pound the chicken meat well with the butter.

  3. Gradually sprinkle in the salt, cayenne pepper, mace, and nutmeg while continuing to pound until smooth.

  4. For added flavor, mix in minced and pounded ham.

Pot and store

  1. Pack the mixture into small jars and cover with clarified butter, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Store in a dry place.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken meat
Forms the bulk of the spread and provides its savory, protein-rich body.
Butter
Binds the pounded meat into a smooth paste and adds richness and mouthfeel.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the meat.
Nutmeg
Contributes warm, sweet aroma that complements the mace.

The step that matters

Pound until smooth. Pounding the meat thoroughly with the butter breaks up fibers and emulsifies the fat into the meat, producing a smooth, spreadable texture. Under-pounding leaves grainy, uneven pieces, and the seasonings won't distribute evenly through the paste.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, meat, butter, pepper, nutmeg, ham):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, butter, pepper, nutmeg, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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