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Potted Ham

A preserved ham made by pounding boiled ham with melted butter and cayenne pepper, then pressing into jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Potted Ham

Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Potted Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ham

  1. Cut the boiled ham into small pieces.

  2. Pound the ham in a mortar, adding melted butter gradually to soften it.

Season and pot

  1. Season with Cayenne pepper to taste.

  2. Press the mixture into small bowls, glasses, or potting jars until smooth.

  3. Pour a little more melted butter over the surface.

  4. Cover tightly and store. It will keep for weeks.

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. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled ham
Provides the main savoury meat flavour and the body of the potted mixture.
Melted butter
Softens the pounded ham into a spreadable texture and adds richness and fat.

The step that matters

Pounding in the melted butter gradually. Adding the butter slowly while pounding lets the fat coat and loosen the meat fibres evenly, giving a smooth, spreadable paste rather than a greasy or lumpy one.

“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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