‘Potting’ is a method of preserving from the days of pre-refrigeration, and can be used with all sorts of meat and fish. The butter layer on the top acts as an air excluder and helps preserve the product that little bit longer.

More recently it’s become a fashionable way of stretching extravagant ingredients and can be found on most gastro-pub menus.

Shrimps, prawns, smoked salmon, trout and mackerel pot very well, as well as beef and lamb.

I love the mixture of flavours, nutmeg and cayenne pepper - it’s a real nod to our colonial past when preserving food was not only a real challenge but a necessity.

(Serves 4-6)

2 dressed crabs (ask your fishmonger to do this)
Salt and pepper
2tsp nutmeg, grated
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
225g salted butter

1. Mix together the white and brown meat from the crab but don’t mash down too smoothly. Season well with salt and pepper and a good grating of nutmeg, about 2 tsp, and the cayenne pepper.
2. Melt half the butter in a saucepan and carefully mix into the crab meat. Turn the mixture into small ramekins. 
3. In a clean saucepan, heat the remaining butter until it melts. Continue heating for a couple of minutes until it stops bubbling. Allow the sediment to settle and carefully pour the clarified butter over the crab ramekins.
4. Chill in the refrigerator and keep for no longer than 2 days.
5. Serve with hot buttered toast and lemon wedges.