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To Pot Beef

A stew of diced beef seasoned with nutmeg, anchovy, mace, cayenne, salt, pepper, and butter, simmered and cooled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

To Pot Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Place the diced beef in a bowl and steam for about 3 hours.

  2. Remove the beef and pound it in a mortar with nutmeg, anchovy, mace, cayenne, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add butter and the gravy while pounding until well combined.

Pot and seal

  1. Transfer the mixture into pots and let it cool.

  2. Once cooled, cover with clarified butter.

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. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Beef + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together451 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main body and texture, pounding breaks it into a spreadable mass.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the mixture set smooth and firm as it cools.
Anchovy
Adds savory depth that rounds out the flavor of the spices.
Gravy from cooking
Adds moisture and meaty flavor, keeping the pounded beef spreadable.

The step that matters

Pounding the beef with butter and gravy. Pounding while the beef is still warm breaks the fibers apart so the fat and liquid are absorbed evenly. Adding them too late or stopping early leaves a grainy, uneven texture.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

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