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Potted Ham, or Tonoub

A preserved ham or tongue mixed with butter, seasoned, packed in pots, and set in clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Potted Ham, or Tonoub

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the ham or tongue into pieces.

  2. Pound it in a mortar with fresh butter until it forms a fine paste.

  3. Season with pounded mace or allspice if desired.

Pot and set

  1. Pack the mixture tightly into pots.

  2. Pour clarified butter over the top, about ¼ inch thick.

  3. Let it stand in a cool place overnight.

Serve

  1. Serve in the pot or cut into thin slices.

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. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

  2. Butter + macetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,405 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Ham + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,050 recipes

Butter and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,405 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

Cold boiled ham or tongue
Forms the main body of the spread, giving it savory meaty flavor and a firm texture.
Fresh butter
Binds the pounded meat into a smooth paste and adds richness and moisture.
Clarified butter
Forms a sealed top layer that protects the potted meat from air and spoilage.

The step that matters

Pounding to a fine paste. Pounding the meat with butter breaks fibers and evenly distributes fat, so the spread turns smooth and spreadable rather than grainy.

Swap the mace

The recipe marks mace as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter. 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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