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Collared and Potted Meats

A preserved meat made by salting, baking, and sealing in clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Collared and Potted Meats

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cure the meat

  1. Rub the meat with saltpetre and coarse sea salt.

  2. Let the meat sit in a pan for two days.

  3. Baste the meat with the brine daily.

Bake the meat

  1. Place the meat in an earthenware jar with all skin and gristle.

  2. Add water to the jar.

  3. Cover the jar with stiff paste.

  4. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for four hours.

  5. After baking, pour off the gravy for later use.

Pot and seal

  1. Remove the skin and gristle from the meat.

  2. Chop the meat finely.

  3. In a mortar, beat the meat.

  4. Add some gravy, fresh butter, and seasonings to the meat. Beat until well combined.

  5. Pack the mixture into small pots or tin cans. Press the mixture down firmly.

  6. Cover with clarified butter to seal.

  7. Optionally, mix in anchovy flesh, minced tongue, ham, mushroom powder, curry powder, shallots, or herbs for added flavor.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Forms the bulk of the potted mixture, giving it its body and savoury flavour.
Saltpetre
Cures the meat, helping it keep its pink colour and resist spoilage during the rest period.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during curing.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth, spreadable texture to the mixed meat.
Clarified butter
Forms a sealed layer over the pots, excluding air to help preserve the contents.

The step that matters

Pressing the mixture into the pots. Packing the mixture down firmly removes air pockets, which helps prevent spoilage and keeps the surface even under the clarified butter seal.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, clove, pepper, 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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