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Potted Game

Potted Game is a preserved meat mixture of game, ham, spices, sugar, and clarified butter, formed into small pots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and allspice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,189 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Potted Game

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the game

  1. Remove skin, bone, and hard parts from the cold game.

  2. Pass the game and ham twice through a mincing machine.

Make the mixture

  1. In a mortar, combine the minced game, ham, spices, cayenne, salt, and sugar.

  2. Pound the mixture thoroughly until well combined.

Pot and store

  1. Press the mixture into small earthenware or china pots.

  2. Pour clarified butter over the tops.

  3. Store the pots in a dry place.

  4. Place the pots on a doily.

  5. Garnish with fresh parsley.

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 + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. White pepper + allspicetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together272 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Remains of cold game
Forms the main body and savoury flavour of the potted mixture.
Chopped fat ham
Adds fat and richness that helps the mixture bind and taste moist.
Clarified butter
Forms a sealing layer on top that excludes air and helps keep the pots fresh.
Finely granulated sugar
Balances the salt and spices with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Pound the mixture thoroughly until well combined. Thorough pounding breaks the meat and fat into a fine, even paste so the spices distribute evenly and the texture spreads smoothly rather than sitting in coarse, uneven pockets.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mace, allspice, sugar, butter, 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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