Potted meat

Potted meat is a form of traditional food preservation, potting, in which hot cooked meat is placed in a pot, tightly packed to exclude air, and then covered with hot fat, such as butter. As the fat cools, it hardens and forms an airtight seal, preventing some spoilage by airborne bacteria. Before the days of refrigeration, potted meat was developed as a way to preserve meat when a freshly slaughtered animal could not be fully eaten immediately.

Spores of Clostridium botulinum can survive cooking at 100 °C (212 °F), and, in the anaerobic neutral pH storage environment, result in botulism.

Often when making potted meat, the meat of only one animal was used, although other recipes, such as the Flemish potjevleesch, used meats from three or four different animals.