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Potted Chicken or Pigeons

A preserved dish of cooked meat stewed in butter and spices, packed in jars and steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Potted Chicken or Pigeons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pack the cooked meat into small stone or earthen jars.

  2. Mix the melted butter, white pepper, powdered mace, salt, and cayenne, then pour the mixture over the meat in the jars.

  3. If using, add the slices of cold boiled ham.

Steam and seal

  1. Cover the jars and steam for one hour.

  2. Press the meat down firmly and cover with a thin layer of melted hot 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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

  4. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat
Forms the body of the potted dish, packed to hold its texture once pressed.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, and a layer on top that seals the meat from air.
Powdered mace
Contributes a warm, aromatic spice flavour to the butter and meat.

The step that matters

Press the meat down firmly before sealing. Pressing removes air pockets so the meat stays compact and the butter layer seals the surface, which helps limit spoilage and oxidation of the fat.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, mace, ham):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, mace, ham. 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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