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To Pot Beef

A slow-baked beef dish cooked in butter and suet, shredded and seasoned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,847 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

To Pot Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cure the beef

  1. Sprinkle a little saltpetre on the beef.

  2. Let the beef sit for two days.

Bake the beef

  1. Place the beef in a pot with a good amount of butter and suet.

  2. Seal the pot tightly with paper.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for two to three hours.

  4. Remove the pot from the oven.

  5. Drain all the fat and gravy from the pot.

Shred and pott the beef

  1. Once cooled, shred the beef into threads.

  2. Grind the shredded beef finely.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and mixed spices.

  4. For every weight of beef, use the same weight of sweet butter.

  5. Mix the butter and meat thoroughly.

  6. Press the mixture into small pots.

  7. Top the pots with more melted butter.

  8. Seal the pots with paper.

  9. Serve in the pots.

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.

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. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and rich when slowly baked and then shredded.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness, coating the meat fibres and helping the mixture hold together.
Suet
Adds fat for richness and moisture during the long, slow baking.
Saltpetre (in the method)
Helps cure the beef, preserving it and giving it a pink colour.

The step that matters

Draining the fat and gravy after baking. Removing excess liquid before grinding and potting keeps the mixture from becoming greasy or watery, so it sets firmly and keeps well.

“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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