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Sardines, Potted
Take a small box of sardines--either smoked or plain--free them from skin and bone, pound them with about half their weight of fresh butter; add cayenne and a grate of nutmeg, and just a drop or two of essence of anchovies. When quite smooth, press them firmly into small jars, and pour clarified butter over the top. Set aside in a cool place.
A savoury spread built on tinned fish, butter and a sealed surface — quick to make, but the keeping instructions belong to a house with a cold larder rather than a warm kitchen.
- A small box of sardinesA modern tin runs around 3.5 to 4 oz (about 100–120 g) net. Half their weight of butter means roughly 2 oz, which gives a firm, sliceable paste; go to 3 oz for something spreadable straight from the fridge.
- Smoked or plain"Plain" means sardines packed in oil or brine; smoked tins are still sold, usually as smoked sprats or brisling. Drain oil-packed fish well or the paste will separate under the butter seal.
- Skin and boneThe backbones in modern tinned sardines are soft enough to eat and will disappear entirely under pounding. Removing them is a texture preference, not a necessity — the skin is the part worth pulling off, since it can leave grey flecks.
- Essence of anchoviesA thin bottled anchovy extract, close to what is now sold as anchovy essence in the UK. Anchovy paste from a tube works, used at about a quarter teaspoon; Worcestershire sauce covers the same salt-and-umami ground if that is what is to hand.
- Pound themA mortar was the original tool, but a small food processor or a fork against the side of a bowl reaches "quite smooth" faster. Have the butter properly soft first — cold butter beaten into fish gives a grainy paste that never comes together.
- Clarified butterMelt butter gently, let the milk solids settle, and pour off the clear fat only. Water and milk solids left in the seal are what spoil a potted jar, which is the whole reason the recipe specifies clarified rather than melted.
- "A cool place" is a refrigeratorThe butter seal was a Victorian larder technique, not a preserving method by modern standards. Refrigerate the jars and eat within three or four days; do not keep sealed potted fish at room temperature.
- YieldOne tin fills two small ramekins and covers toast for four as a savoury or a first course. Serve at cool room temperature, about twenty minutes out of the fridge, with dry toast and lemon.
Potting — pounding cooked meat or fish with butter and sealing it under a layer of clarified fat — was standard English larder practice long before refrigeration, and by the time Cassell's was compiled it had become less about preservation than about producing spreads for breakfast, the savoury course and the tea table. What dates this particular version is the tin: sardine canning is generally traced to Nantes in the early nineteenth century, and cheap imported tins had become a familiar sight in British shops, which is why a dictionary of cookery could open a recipe with "take a small box of sardines" and assume every reader knew exactly what was meant. The seasoning — cayenne, nutmeg, a drop of anchovy essence — is the standard Victorian savoury register, the same trio that flavours potted shrimps and devilled anything, and the anchovy essence is doing the work that a modern cook might expect from lemon juice or hot sauce.