Potted meat refers to the method for preserving the meat. The meat is cooked, placed hot in a pot, tightly packed to exclude air, and then covered with hot fat. As the fat cools it hardens and forms an airtight seal preventing 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.

A potted meat food product is a food, similar to a pâté, made using a method of food preservation, canning, consisting of cooked meat product, seasoned, often puréed, minced, or ground, which is heat processed and sealed into cans. This is different from potted meat, an older noncommercial method of preserving meat.