Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Care is required, too, in seasoning it, and it is better to add the spices gradually, and to keep tasting the meat until it satisfies the palate — for additional spice can be put in when it cannot be taken out. At the same time potted meat is worth nothing unless it is pleasantly flavoured, and it is almost universally liked rather highly seasoned. The meat should be cold before it is cut, and the butter should be cool before it is poured upon the paste. The gravy, too, should be drained thoroughly from the meat, or it will not keep. Dry and salted meats will need more butter than fresh white ones. Potting. — By potting is generally meant the operation of preserving edible substances in a state for immediate use in small pots or jars. In the case of animal food, the method of proceeding is first to dress the substance well, carefully deprive it of bones, skin, sinews, &c., and then mince it. After laeing minced it is pounded in a clean polished marble or iron mortar, together with a little butter and some cayenne pepper, or other suitable sauce or sauce, until it forms a perfectly smooth paste. This is pressed into pots, which are about twothirds filled. Clarified butter is then poured in, to the depth of about an eighteenth of au inch ; the pots are closed over and stored in a cool place. In this state their contents can be preserved for a considerable time. Potted meats, fish, &c., are commonly sold in the shops. They are all intended for relishes, and are spread upon bread just like butter. For various recipes for potted meats, &c., sec Potted Dishes. Pot Top Liquor.— The fat should always bo skimmed carefully from the top of soups and sauces, and this fat may be used for frying purposes, and wiU be found excellent. It should, of course, be clarified : to accomplish this it should be boiled gently with a little water, then strained through a gravy strainer. Or it may be poured into a bowl with the water, and when it is cold it will be found that the impurities have sunk to the bottom of the cake of fat, and may easily be removed. It is most essential to the excellence of soup that it should be well skimmed, and it is a good plan to throw a table-spoonful of cold water into the liquor as it approaches the boiling-point, to assist the scum in rising. Poulard Ketch.up. — Take a quart of ripe \ elderberries, measui-ed after they have been POU (641) POTJ stripped from the stalks. Put them into a deep jar, and pour over them a pint and a half of boiling vinegar. Place the jar in a cool oven overnight. Next day strain the liquid without squeezing the fruit, and put it into a saucepan with an inch of whole ginger, two blades of mace, a tea-spoonful of peppercorns, a tea-spoonful of salt, half a tea-spoonful of cloves, and eight shallots. Boil all together for five or six minutes, then pour the ketchup out, and when cold, put it with the spice into small bottles, which must be corked and sealed securely. If liked, half a pound of boned anchovies may be put into the liquid with the spices, and stirred gently until they have dissolved. Probable cost, uncertain, elderberries being seldom offered for sale. Sufficient for four half- pint bottles. Poularde. — This is simply another name for capon ; it may be dressed according to the recipe given for turkeys.