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Potted Meat

A dish of boiled chicken, veal shanks, pork, and calf's liver simmered in seasoned broth and set in a pan.

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 meats

  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 the fat once it jellies.

Prepare the meat

  1. Cut the boned meat into small pieces.

  2. Finely shave the liver.

Make the potted meat

  1. Heat the broth.

  2. Add all the meat pieces.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

  4. Stir well.

  5. Let it simmer for a few minutes.

  6. Pour the mixture into a large enameled pan.

  7. Let it set until firm.

  8. Drop several hard boiled eggs throughout the pan.

  9. Mix a finely minced onion and vinegar into one portion of the meat.

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
Provides rich flavor and natural gelatin that helps the broth set firm when cooled.
Veal shanks
Their bones and connective tissue release gelatin, helping the mixture jell as it cools.
Pork
Adds body and fat that give the meat a tender, spreadable texture.
Calf's liver
Contributes a deep, rich flavor and smooth texture when finely shaved.
Broth
Carries moisture and gelatin that bind the meat pieces into a firm set.

The step that matters

Let it set until firm. The mixture sets because gelatin from bones and connective tissue firms as it cools. Set it cold and undisturbed, and skim the fat first, so the texture stays clean and sliceable.

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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