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Beef, Potted

A slow-cooked beef dish preserved in clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef, Potted

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Prepare a saucepan of boiling water and a covered jar that holds about 2 pounds of beef.

  2. Place the jar with the meat into the saucepan, add 2 teaspoons of water, and close the lid tightly.

  3. Ensure the water in the saucepan is about 1.5 inches below the lid of the jar.

  4. Boil slowly for about 3.5 hours until the meat is done.

Pound and pot

  1. Chop the meat with a knife, then pound it in a mortar.

  2. Add clarified butter, some meat juice (reserve some if too much), and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Fill small pots with the mixture and pour melted butter over the top to preserve.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and flaky after slow cooking and pounding.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the pounded meat a smooth, spreadable texture.
Melted butter
Forms a sealed fat layer on top that helps protect the potted meat from air.

The step that matters

Keep the water below the jar lid during the slow boil. Gentle, indirect heat cooks the meat evenly and keeps it moist. Boiling vigorously or letting water enter the jar can make the meat tough and dilute its juices.

“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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