English Potted Shrimps

Potted shrimps seem to have come from northwestern England, where the small shrimp commonly caught off the coast there have been used. The process of using butter to seal jars or pots of food has been around for a number of centuries, as it was a way of preserving food. As I've noted here before, Americans, and likely "some" (many?) Canadians, use the word "shrimp" as both the singular and plural; while in England and other parts of the British Isles, "shrimp" is singular and "shrimps" is plural. Since this is an English dish, I'll use "shrimps" for this article. For "potted shrimps," use small shrimp (51/60 shrimps per pound), and then cut them in half, or use the tiny size (61/70), which can be left whole.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound small shrimps (or small cooked shrimps), halved if small, left whole if tiny/extra small
2/3 pound butter*
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon mace (or nutmeg)
1 pinch cayenne pepper (more if you like a "kick")
1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon anchovy paste, or fish sauce, or shrimp sauce

In a pan or skillet, melt about half the butter over low heat. Add the lemon juice, mace or nutmeg, cayenne pepper, black pepper and anchovy paste. Mix well and let cook for about 90 seconds over low heat. Add the halved or whole shrimps and cook until pink and tender (if you use already cooked shrimp, just heat the shrimp through; don't overcook them, they get rubbery). In England they usually put the shrimps into small dishes or ramekins, but I just put them into a larger bowl. Whatever way you choose, try to have the shrimps covered with the seasoned butter before it cools. Let the shrimps cool to the point of setting up, and while that is going on, melt the remaining butter, then let it cool a bit. Pour that unseasoned butter over the seasoned shrimps and let it cool, then refrigerate to let it set. You can use it before the butter totally sets up, or you can let it set, then remove it and let it sit until it is less solid and somewhat more spreadable. Serve with warm toast or toast wedges. If you like more "heat," spoon some of the shrimps onto your toast, then sprinkle cayenne pepper to taste on top.    

* The butter "should" be unsalted, and many recipes call for "clarified" butter; that is, butter with the milk solids removed, leaving the butterfat. If you use "ghee," from the Indian subcontinent, that's it, you've got it! Now, if you don't have unsalted butter (myself, I rarely buy it), use salted butter, which is what I do. For such a sin, the English might lock you up in the Tower of London, but they probably won't keep you there long; after all, they let me out. If, however, they threaten to have you meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was born in the U.S., and who has some noticeable resemblance to the current orange monster occupying the White House (I wrote this in 2019), don't be a glutton for punishment; just give in, and buy unsalted butter. 

WORD HISTORY:
Pot-This is the noun, and the less common verb, which was derived from the noun. The slang term "pot" meaning marijuana seems to be a shortening of a different word, which may or may not be related to the more common word "pot." This common word has a shaky history, and its ultimate origin is uncertain, and "may" be from a non Indo European language. Its next step doesn't get much easier, as it "may" be from Old Germanic, or there has long been speculation that West Germanic got it from Celtic. The form in the West Germanic dialects/languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), was "pott," meaning, "pot, round container, jar." In English this gradually became "pot," which has carried into modern times, and the meaning narrowed to "(usually) large pan, kettle, for cooking," which also added the meaning, "container for brewing hot beverages," as well as, "container for serving hot beverages." The idea of holding bets in a container provided the meaning for "pot, the money held for card games," later expanded to include other forms of betting. The verb is rare in modern English, but it seems to have developed from the noun in the second half of the 1500s with the meaning, "drink beverages from a pot," "put food into a pot for cooking." Noun forms in the other Germanic languages: German has "Pott," a borrowing in the 1500s from Low German. Low German has that same spelling and also provided the meanings for standard German: "cooking pan," "drink container," and the slang meanings, "a ship," like English usage of "tub" for a ship; as well as the meaning "chamber pot," which then carried over into the more modern era as a slang for "toilet," a meaning also present in English, although often used as "potty" for children. As Low German is not a standard language, "Pott," as "Potte," was also used regionally in the Ruhr area of Germany for "a container for carrying coal." German also uses "Pott" for the betting pool of money, a meaning I "assume" was taken from English. Dutch has "pot" (jar, container, pot), West Frisian "pôt," which seems to be rare or antiquated ("pot, container"). The North Germanic languages of Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, all descend from Old Norse, which had "pottr," a borrowing from Old Saxon (the Saxon that remained in northern Germany after a portion of Saxons sailed off to Britain and helped to found England along with other Germanic cousins. Latin had "pottus," a likely borrowing from Frankish, another West Germanic dialect/language that had MUCH contact with Latin speakers, although I have seen speculation that Latin borrowed its form from Gaulish, the Celtic language/dialect of the Gauls, but "from what I can find," that would have required a much earlier borrowing by Latin than seems to be the case.