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Potted Meat

A preserved meat mixture of chicken, veal shanks, pork, and calf's liver set in seasoned broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Potted Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the meat

  1. Boil the chicken, veal shanks, pork, and calf's liver until the meat loosens from the bone.

  2. Remove the meat from the broth.

  3. Let the meat cool completely.

  4. Strain the broth.

  5. Skim off all fat once it jellies.

Make the mixture

  1. Cut the boned meat into small pieces.

  2. Finely shave the liver.

  3. Heat the broth.

  4. Add all the meat pieces and stir well.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika, or adjust to your taste.

  6. Let it simmer for a few minutes.

  7. Pour the mixture into a large enameled pan.

Set and finish

  1. Let it set until firm.

  2. Place hard boiled eggs throughout the mixture if desired.

  3. Divide the meat.

  4. Mix one portion with minced onion and vinegar to taste.

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. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

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

  2. Veal + livertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: enoic acid (butter, cheesy).

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Pork + livertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 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

Chicken
Its bones and connective tissue release gelatin that helps the broth set firm.
Veal shanks
Their collagen-rich bones and tissue add gelatin, giving the set mixture body.
Pork
Adds fat and moisture, so the set meat stays tender and spreadable.
Calf's liver
Adds a rich, deep flavor and a smooth texture when finely shaved.
Broth
Carries the cooked meat flavor and sets to a jelly as it cools.

The step that matters

Skim off all fat once it jellies. Chilling lets the fat rise and harden on the surface so it can be lifted off cleanly. Fat left behind makes the set texture greasy and can keep it from firming properly.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, veal, pork, liver, meat, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, veal, pork, liver, meat, pepper, egg. 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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