Potting Food
HF food historian, Seren Evans-Charrington. charts the history of potting food – from an expensive way of preserving the best cuts, to a later more classless role, with delicious potting recipes for Potted Shrimp, Potted Beef, Potted Cheese and Potted Mushrooms
See also:
How to Clarify Butter Nut Pate Elizabethian Pickled Mushrooms
Before the age of refrigeration, meat was preserved in a variety of ways; it was cured in salt, smoked, doused in honey, and even buried in ash, but one of the tastiest ways of preserving was ‘potting’.
Today, with the widespread availability of refrigeration, potting may no longer be a necessary form of preserving, but it is undeniably a method that consistently yields absolutely delicious results, and one that combines tastiness with thriftiness; indeed, the forgotten art of potting is long overdue a well-deserved revival.By the mediaeval period, the tradition of preserving meat and fish under a layer of clarified fat was in regular use. Small game birds and sometimes fish would be preserved whole by boiling them before dipping them in fat and then laying them in a pot and filling it to the top with more melted fat.
Soon it was discovered that if the meat was pounded and mixed with butter and spices before being sealed with clarified butter, it not only acted as a preservative, but also created a delicacy. Through potting, valuable surplus food could be kept for a future date without the fear of it turning rancid. The earliest tradition of potting was, however, an expensive treat that combined costly spices with a way of preserving the very best cuts of meat.
Sir Hugh Plat, an English inventor, writer on agriculture and an avid collector of recipes, was a great advocate of potting and wrote during the Stewart period that potted meat would keep “sweet and sound for three weeks” even in hot weather. With the promise of long keeping and flavoursome results, cooks were quick to start potting all kinds of fish and fowl. There was certainly no shortage of options when it came to potting; recipes to pot everything from swans (see above) to venison were available, and pigeon preserved in claret and butter was reported to keep for as long as a quarter of a year.Eventually, as the spice routes opened up and spices became more affordable and accessible to more householders, the world of potting, too, became available to an increasing audience and was no longer the preserve solely of the rich. Records show that foods potted included meats (ham, beef, veal, tongue and game), poultry (chicken, turkey and swan), small birds (woodcock, quail, lark and pigeon), fish (char, tench, trout and eel), shellfish (lobster, crab and shrimp), mushrooms and cheese (also known as ‘pounded cheese’).
It is fair to say that the commercial potted pastes of the twentieth century were poor imitations of what had once been quite opulent. Like many people, I was put off potted meat by childhood memories of cheerless, commercial meat pastes spread on white sliced bread and squashed into a lunchbox. The little glass jars of salmon, beef and crab all shared the same slightly granular texture, and were the stuff of unimaginative sandwiches and school day groans. Thankfully, home-made potted delights are amongst the finest pleasures in life, and the taste of potted shrimps served with a squeeze of lemon and some good toast is guaranteed to lay all memories of commercial potted food to rest.
HOW TO MAKE POTTED SHRIMPS
INGREDIENTS220g cooked, peeled shrimps 70g butter ½ tsp ground mace ¼ tsp black pepper ¼ tsp ground cumin ¼ tsp cayenne pepper Clarified butter
METHOD
1 Melt the butter gently in a saucepan, add the shrimps and spices and warm carefully, but do not boil, as this will toughen the shrimps.
2 Stir as they heat up and, when thoroughly hot, spoon them into little pots and then chill.
3 Once they have cooled, seal them with a good 1.5cm of clarified butter.
HOW TO MAKE POTTED BEEF
Cut six Pounds of the Buttock of Beef into pieces, season it with Mace, Pepper, Cloves and Ginger, beat together, and mixed with salt; lay it in a Pot with two Pounds of Butter; bake it four Hours, well covered up; Before it is cold take out the Beef, beat it fine, and put it down close in Pots, and pour on clarified Butter.The Country Housewife – Richard Bradley, 1753
My own modern version of the above Georgian recipe is always a hit with supper guests, and a popular addition to festive gatherings.
INGREDIENTS
450g stewing beef ½ tsp ground mace ¼ tsp ground cloves ¼ tsp ground ginger ¼ tsp ground rock salt 50g butter (for cooking) Clarified butter (for sealing)
METHOD
1 Place the beef, spices and butter in a casserole dish and cook in the oven on a low heat for 1–1½ hours, or until tender.
2 Mince the beef finely, pack into a suitable container and top with a good measure of clarified butter.
3 Allow it to set – it tastes best if allowed to mellow for at least 1 day, and is delish served with a selection of home-made chutneys and fresh breads or some crackers.
In these times of economic unrest we ought to employ some thrift in our potting, and indeed you can make potted meat from any leftover roast. Simply mince the meat and mix it with melted butter, a pinch of cayenne pepper, lemon zest, salt, pepper and nutmeg, then pack it all into a small bowl with a bay leaf on top and seal with a good layer of clarified butter.
HOW TO POT LEFTOVER CHEESE
Cheese is one of my favourite things to pot, and it is an excellent way of using up odds and ends of cheese that you might find lurking in the fridge. Simply grate Cheddar cheese (or any other cheese you may have) and combine with melted butter (equating to a quarter of the cheese’s weight), add cayenne pepper, ground mace and nutmeg to taste and perhaps a slosh of sherry before potting up. This works very well with the addition of a bit of Stilton, and is a good way of making a little cheese stretch further.
HOW TO MAKE POTTED MUSHROOMS
No winter evening would be complete, in my opinion, without some hot toast topped with potted mushrooms. This recipe is adapted from a Victorian one, and is best enjoyed in the company of a roaring fire.INGREDIENTS
30g butter 800g mushrooms A pinch of salt ¼ tsp black pepper ¼ tsp celery seed 1 tsp mace 50ml dry sherry Zest of 1 lemon Clarified butter (for sealing)
METHOD
1 Finely chop the mushrooms or pulse them briefly in a food processor.
2 Heat a large pan over a medium heat and add the butter, then stir to melt it.
3 Once melted, add the chopped mushrooms and sprinkle with the salt and spices. Stir well to coat everything with the butter, then increase the heat to medium-high and cook until soft and beginning to colour.
4 Add the sherry and the lemon zest, stirring well to combine, and continue cooking until the sherry has evaporated, then pot into suitable containers and top with clarified butter.
5 Refrigerate for at least 4 hours to let the flavours develop and the butter set, and always remove it from the fridge at least 1 hour before serving.
This will keep for 3–4 weeks refrigerated, and can be frozen. It’s a great recipe for using up surplus mushrooms (or in-store reduced-price mushrooms), and never manages to last a full 4 weeks in my household, as there are many hungry hands and mouths willing to partake in a sumptuous supper of potted delights.
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