Harper's cook book encyclopædia

preparing for baking it is well to sprinkle the ham with a layer of sugar and a layer of corn meal, and it is wise also to put about a half-pint of water into the drip-pan, which should be set in a close oven. There should be no basting, as the rising steam makes tenderness enough. When brought upon the table, all decorated with parsley and round splotches of black pepper, the host passes his sharp knife into the ham, and its thin, pink slices fall on the dish all veined with green hues. Ham and Eggs. — Cut the ham into thin slices of a uniform thickness, and, if it is very hard and salt, soak it for eight or ten minutes in boiling water, then drain, and dry it in a cloth. Cut off the rind, put the slices in a cold frying-pan, and turn them two or three times during cooking. Put them on a hot dish, and, if the fat is in the least discolored, poach the eggs separately and slip them into the pan. Take them up, drain them from the fat, and place them on the ham. Serve as hot as possible. Time, seven or eight minutes to fry the ham. Another way : — Broil thin slices of boiled ham three or four minutes over a brisk fire. Try out a little salt pork in a pan, then add the eggs one at a time, basting them once with the fat in the pan. Ham Escalopes au Xeres. — Cut into thin slices and free from fat I lb. of cooked ham. Mix a teaspoonful of flour and a table-spoonful of butter to a smooth paste, and spread with a knife a small quantity of the mixture on each side of each slice of ham. Sprinkle the slices with powdered sugar, and put a little in the chafing-dish after they are piled one on top of the other in the dish. Add one gill and a half of the best sherry. Cook fifteen minutes with cover on over a moderate flame, basting four times. Serve hot. Ham Fingers. — Cut thin slices of lean, cold boiled ham ; cut each slice into strips half an inch wide, dip into a thick remolade sauce, place four on a slice of bread, cover with a top slice, cut into four fingers, lengthwise, fold each one in a lettuce-leaf, and pile on a napkin. Ham and Fowl, Potted. — Take the meat from a cold chicken and put it into a mortar with l/i lb. of cooked ham fat and lean mixed. Pound these to a pulp, and season them with pepper and a very little pounded mace. Put the bone and trimmings of the chicken into a saucepan, with a small bunch of sweet herbs, half a blade of mace, and as much water as will cover them. Boil the meat down to glaze. Mix this and 2 ozs. of clarified butter with the pounded meat. Put it into small jars, and pour clarified butter over the top. Time, about one hour to prepare. Ham, Roast. — Scrape, soak, and wipe the ham. Put it into a dish ; pour a bottle of Madeira wine over it ; cut a carrot and two onions in slices ; put these over it also, with two bayleaves, two cloves, and six stalks of parsley. Baste now and then, and leave thus for twenty-four hours ; then remove the bone at the larger end, trim off fat and lean, and put it in a bake-pan; turn the seasonings over it, put into the oven, baste now and then until cooked, which you ascertain with a skewer. Dish it, strain the gravy over it, and serve with wine sauce.