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Ham, Potted

A ham mixture seasoned with mace, nutmeg, and cayenne, baked and packed in a jar with clarified lard.

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 ↓

Ham, Potted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mince the ham, fat, and lean together.

  2. Pound the mixture in a mortar, seasoning with cayenne, mace, and nutmeg.

Bake and pot

  1. Transfer the mixture to a deep baking dish and bake for 1 hour.

  2. Press the mixture into a stone jar and fill it with clarified lard.

  3. Cover the jar tightly and seal with thick paper.

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

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

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

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

  5. Ham + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,050 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Lean ham
Provides the main meaty body and savory flavor of the potted mixture.
Fat
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the potted ham soft and spreadable.
Clarified lard
Fills the jar and seals out air, helping the potted ham keep.
Pounded mace
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.

The step that matters

Press the mixture into the stone jar. Pressing it firmly removes air pockets, and a full layer of clarified lard sealed over the top keeps air out, which slows spoilage and oxidation of the fat.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, nutmeg, pepper. 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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