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Potted Meat

A preserved meat mixture of ham and veal spiced with mace, nutmeg, cayenne, and sealed with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and nutmeg 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 ↓

Potted Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pound the lean ham and roast veal together in a mortar until well combined.

  2. Add mace, nutmeg, and cayenne, mixing thoroughly.

Pot and seal

  1. Press the mixture into small potting pans.

  2. Pour clarified butter over the top to seal.

Store

  1. Store in a cool, dry place for up to two 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.

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. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  3. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean ham
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the spread.
Roast veal
Adds tender, mild meat that softens the texture of the mixture.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and, once clarified and poured on top, seals out air to help preservation.
Mace
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavor to the meat.
Nutmeg
Adds a sweet, warm aroma that complements the meat and spices.

The step that matters

Pour clarified butter over the top to seal. Clarified butter forms a solid, airtight layer that keeps air and microbes away from the meat, which is what allows the potted meat to keep. If the seal is thin or cracked, the surface can spoil sooner.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, butter, nutmeg. 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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