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Preserve

Potted Meat

A dish of lean beef simmered with cloves, then minced and seasoned with salt, pepper, anchovy sauce, butter, and gravy, set in pots.

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 ↓

Potted Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beef

  1. Cut the beef into 2-inch square pieces.

  2. Place in a stew jar with water and cloves.

  3. Cover closely and simmer gently for 2 hours.

Mince and season

  1. When cool, pass the meat through a mincing machine two or three times.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and a little anchovy sauce.

  3. Mix well with melted butter and add a little gravy.

Pot and set

  1. Press into pots, cover with butter, and let set.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 body of the potted meat, which sets firm once minced and pressed.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and forms a cover that helps the pots keep.

The step that matters

Simmer gently with the lid closed. A slow, covered simmer keeps the beef tender and moist. Boiling hard toughens the muscle fibres and drives off juices, leaving a dry, stringy texture after mincing.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, pepper, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, pepper, anchovy, sauce. 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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