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Potted Beef

A stew of beef simmered with onion, spices, and anchovy sauce, then minced and returned to the stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Potted Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all skin and fat from the beef.

  2. Place the beef in a stone jar with a little pepper and salt.

  3. Add the studded onion and cover with cold water.

Cook

  1. Stew gently for 5 hours without covering.

Mince and season

  1. Once cooked, remove the meat from the stock and mince it several times.

  2. Return the minced meat to the stock and mix well.

  3. Add the butter, more pepper, salt, a pinch of cayenne, and the anchovy sauce.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the meat that becomes tender during slow stewing and is then minced into the spread.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the finished potted meat a smooth, moist texture.
Anchovy sauce
Adds savoury depth and salty umami flavour to the meat.
Onion
Flavours the stock with aroma as it stews alongside the beef.

The step that matters

Stewing gently without covering. Slow, gentle heat tenderises the beef's connective tissue without toughening the muscle fibres, while leaving the pot uncovered lets some liquid evaporate so the stock concentrates. A rolling boil would make the meat tough and stringy.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, onion, butter, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, onion, butter, anchovy, sauce. 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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