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Potted Beef

A preserved beef dish made by pickling, baking, pounding, and pressing into pots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 18,971 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Take four pounds of good lean beef and cut it up well.

  2. Pour over it a tablespoonful of saltpetre.

  3. Pour over it a tablespoonful of salt.

  4. Pour over it a tablespoonful of sugar.

  5. Let this pickle remain on the meat for twenty-four hours.

Bake the beef

  1. Put the meat in a jar.

  2. Cover the top with suet off the meat.

  3. Cover it closely.

  4. Put it in the oven to bake for three or more hours.

  5. Pour off the gravy, which may serve for many purposes.

Pound and pot

  1. Take the meat and pound it well in a mortar.

  2. Add three-quarters of a pound of fresh butter.

  3. Add a little cayenne or other pepper (just too much).

  4. Taste and see if there is sufficient salt.

  5. Wait until it is quite cold before pressing it into pots.

  6. Cover it over with melted suet.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Beef + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,835 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Butter + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together85,512 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the bulk of the potted meat, pounded into a soft, spreadable texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the pounded meat become smooth and hold together.
Salt
Seasons the meat and helps preserve it during the curing period.

The step that matters

Wait until quite cold before pressing into pots. Fat from the butter and suet stays soft while warm, so pressing the mixture early gives a loose texture. Cooling lets the fat firm up so the potted meat sets and holds its shape.

“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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