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Potted Ham

A ham mixture seasoned with mace, nutmeg, and cayenne, baked and then pressed into a jar with clarified lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Potted Ham

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 Ham

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Mince the lean ham and fat together.

  2. Pound the mixture in a mortar, seasoning with cayenne, mace, and nutmeg.

Bake and pot

  1. Transfer the mixture to a deep baking dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Press the mixture into a stone jar and fill it with clarified lard.

  3. Cover the jar tightly and seal with a piece of thick paper.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Ham + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,050 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lean ham
Provides the main meat flavour and the firm, sliceable body of the potted mixture.
Fat
Adds moisture and a rich mouthfeel as it softens during pounding and baking.
Clarified lard
Fills the jar and forms a sealed layer that excludes air and helps preserve the ham.
Powdered mace
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour that complements the richness of the meat.
Nutmeg
Contributes warm, aromatic spice notes that round out the seasoning.

The step that matters

Sealing the jar. The lard layer and tight cover must exclude air, because air allows fat to oxidise and spoilage microbes to grow. A poor seal shortens how long the potted ham keeps.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, nutmeg, pepper. 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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