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Beef, Potted

A lean beef cooked slowly in water, then chopped and seasoned with butter, salt, pepper, and anchovy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Beef, Potted

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Procure a nice piece of lean beef, free from gristle and skin.

  2. Place the beef in a jar with 1 tablespoon of water and cover it tightly.

Cook

  1. Put the jar in a saucepan of boiling water, ensuring the water comes within 2 inches of the top of the jar. Boil gently for 3½ hours.

Pound and season

  1. Remove the beef, chop it very small, and pound it thoroughly in a mortar. Mix in the butter and season with salt, cayenne, black pepper, and anchovy sauce.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and pounds into a smooth paste.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the pounded beef a smooth, spreadable texture.

The step that matters

Boiling gently in the jar bath. Keeping the water at a gentle boil, with the jar sealed and the water level below its top, lets the beef cook slowly in its own juices. Vigorous boiling could dry the meat or let water enter the jar.

“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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