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Potted Beef

A savory beef and bacon mixture baked in small pots, seasoned with herbs, spices, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Potted Beef

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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Cut the beef and bacon into small pieces and place them in a mortar.

  2. Add parsley, thyme, savory, shallots, pepper, salt, essence of ham, mushroom powder, mace, cloves, allspice, and beaten eggs.

  3. Pour in the Rhenish wine and pound all ingredients together until finely mixed.

Bake and set

  1. Fill small pots with the mixture and cover with paper.

  2. Bake gently at 300°F (150°C) for 40 minutes.

  3. Once cooled, cover the mixture with clarified butter.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef fillet
Provides the main meat body, which sets firm and holds the potted texture when cooled.
Bacon fat
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the mixture soft and carrying the flavour through the pot.
Eggs
Bind the pounded mixture so it holds together and sets as it bakes.
Rhenish wine
Adds acidity and aroma, and moisture that helps the mixture blend smoothly.
Shallots
Add a mild savoury sweetness and aroma to the mixture.

The step that matters

Bake gently. Slow, low heat lets the egg and meat proteins set evenly without tightening and drying out. High heat would toughen the mixture and cause it to weep fat or curdle.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, thyme, shallot, pepper, ham, mushroom):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, thyme, shallot, pepper, ham, mushroom. 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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