The best potted beef is made from meat cooked expressly for it by placing it in a jar tightly shut, with about a teaspoonful or more of water, and then boiling the jar for several hours in water, and letting the beef get cold before the jar is opened.

Potted beef is generally made from the remains of cold boiled beef, or, indeed, any cold cooked meat will do. Remove all gristle and skin; cut it up, and either send it through a mincing machine, or pound it in a mortar, or rub it through a wire sieve. Then mix to every pound of beef half a pound of clarified butter, or less butter if you have a little strong gravy which is a very hard jelly when cold. Season with half a saltspoonful of cayenne pepper, a little salt, and half a grated nutmeg. A little dried powdered bay-leaf is an improvement, and you may rub the basin in which you mix the potted meat with garlic.

Press the potted meat into small jars or pots, make them hot in the oven, and then cover with clarified butter, poured on hot, and then let the pots get cold.