Skip to main content
Main

Potted Meat

A preserved meat mixture of veal or chicken, ham, beef, butter, anchovy essence, and spices, cooked and set in a mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Potted Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat paste

  1. Mince the veal or chicken and ham, then place in a mortar.

  2. Add butter, cayenne pepper, and anchovy essence; pound well together.

  3. Press the mixture into a mold and cover with melted butter.

Cook the beef

  1. For the beef, cut it into 5 or 6 pieces and place in a jar with cold water.

  2. Simmer for 5 hours, then mince the beef and mix with the other ingredients, reserving some butter for topping.

  3. Melt the reserved butter and pour over the mixture.

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. Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Veal + anchovytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture, and seals the top of the potted mixture.
Beef (round)
Provides the main meaty bulk and flavor after long, slow simmering until tender.
Veal or chicken
Forms the lean cooked meat base that gives the paste its body.
Ham
Adds savory, salty meat flavor to the paste.
Anchovy essence
Contributes a deep savory, salty flavor that enhances the other meats.

The step that matters

Simmering the beef for 5 hours. Long, gentle simmering breaks down the connective tissue in tough round beef, making it tender enough to mince. Too vigorous a boil can toughen the meat and leave it stringy.

“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.

More potted meat recipes

Sandwich 3 See all 34 →

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes