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Preserve

Potted Meats for Sand- Wiches

A spreadable paste of cooked white meat or poultry mixed with cream, butter, or jelly, used on bread or toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potted Meats for Sand- Wiches

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spread

  1. Finely chop the cooked white meat or poultry and pound it into a smooth paste.

  2. Gradually add cream, meat jelly, or butter to the meat mixture until well combined.

  3. If desired, mix in thickened gravy for moisture.

  4. Season with salt to taste.

  5. For added richness, mix in the yolk of a cooked egg.

Serve

  1. Spread the meat mixture on slices of bread and butter or thin strips of toast.

  2. For a warm option, heat the mixture and spread it on hot toast.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked white meat or poultry
Forms the main body of the spread, giving it its bulk and savory flavor.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, making the pounded meat smooth and spreadable.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture in the spread.
Thickened gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth to the meat mixture.
Cooked egg yolk
Adds richness and fat, giving the spread a creamier body.

The step that matters

Pounding the meat into a smooth paste. Meat must be finely chopped and pounded so fibers break down; otherwise the spread stays grainy and does not bind well with the added cream or butter.

“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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