The Lady's Own Cookery Book, and New Dinner-Table Directory Part 25

_Ham, to cure._ No. 14.

Take a quant.i.ty of spring water sufficient to cover the meat you design to cure; make the pickle with an equal quant.i.ty of bay salt and common salt; add to a pound of each one pound of coa.r.s.e brown sugar, one ounce of saltpetre, and one ounce of petre-salt; let the pickle be strong enough to bear an egg. If you design to eat the pork in a month or six weeks, it is best not to boil the pickle; if you intend it for the year, the pickle must be boiled and skimmed well until it is perfectly clear; let it be quite cold before you use it. Rub the meat that is to be preserved with some common salt, and let it lie upon a table sloping, to drain out all the blood; wipe it very dry with a coa.r.s.e cloth before you put it into the pickle. The proportion of the pickle may be this: four pounds of common salt, four pounds of bay salt, three pounds of coa.r.s.e sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, and two ounces of petre-salt, with a sufficient quant.i.ty of spring water to cover what you do, boiled as directed above. Let the hams lie about six weeks in the pickle, and then send them to be smoked. Beef, pork, and tongues, may be cured in the same manner: ribs of beef done in this way are excellent.

_Ham, to cure._ No. 15.

Wash the ham clean; soak it in pump water for an hour; dry it well, and rub into it the following composition: saltpetre two ounces, bay salt nine ounces, common salt four ounces, lump sugar three ounces; but first beat them separately into a fine powder; mix them together, dry them before the fire, and then rub them into the ham, as hot as the hand can bear it. Then lay the ham sloping on a table; put on it a board with forty or fifty pounds weight; let it remain thus for five days; then turn it, and, if any of the salt is about it, rub it in, and let it remain with the board and weight on it for five days more; this done rub off the salt, &c. When you intend to smoke it, hang the ham in a sugar hogshead, over a chaffing-dish of wood embers; throw on it a handful of juniper-berries, and over that some horse-dung, and cover the cask with a blanket. This may be repeated two or three times the same day, and the ham may be taken out of the hogshead the next morning. The quant.i.ty of salt here specified is for a middle sized ham. There should not be a hole cut in the leg, as is customary, to hang it up by, nor should it be soaked in brine. Hams thus cured will keep for three months without smoking, so that the whole quant.i.ty for the year may be smoked at the same time. The ham need not be soaked in water before it is used, but only washed clean. Instead of a chaffing-dish of coals to smoke the hams, make a hole in the ground, and therein put the fire; it must not be fierce: be sure to keep the mouth of the hogshead covered with a blanket to retain the smoke.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 1.

Cut a leg of pork to the shape of a Westphalia ham; salt it, and set it on the fire in a skillet till dry, and put to it two ounces of saltpetre finely beaten. The salt must be put on as hot as possible. Let it remain a week in the salt, and then hang it up in the chimney for three weeks or a month. Two ounces of saltpetre will be sufficient for the quant.i.ty of salt required for one ham.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 2.

Let the hams be very well p.r.i.c.ked with a skewer on the wrong side, hanging them in an airy place as long as they will keep sweet, and with a gallon of saltpetre make a pickle, and keep stirring it till it will bear an egg; boil and skim it and put three pounds of brown sugar to it.

Let the hams lie about a month in this pickle, which must be cold when they are put in; turn them every day; dry them with saw-dust and charcoal. The above is the quant.i.ty that will do for six hams.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 3.

Rub every ham with four ounces of saltpetre. Next day put bay salt, common salt, and coa.r.s.e sugar, half a pound of each, into a quart of stale strong beer, adding a small quant.i.ty of each of these ingredients for every ham to be made at that time. Boil this pickle, and pour it boiling hot over every ham. Let them lie a fortnight in it, rubbing them well and turning them twice a day. Then smoke the ham for three days and three nights over a fire of saw-dust and horse-litter, fresh made from the stable every night; after which smoke them for a fortnight over a wood fire like other bacon.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 4.

For two hams the following proportions may be observed: wash your hams all over with vinegar, and hang them up for two or three days. Take one pound and a half of the brownest sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of bay salt, and a quart of common salt; mix them together; heat them before the fire as hot as you can bear your hand in, and rub it well into the hams before the fire, till they are very tender. Lay them in a tub made long for that purpose, or a butcher's tray, that will hold them both, one laid one way and the other the contrary way, and strew the remainder of the ingredients over them. When the salt begins to melt, add a pint of vinegar, and let them lie three weeks, washing them with the liquor and turning them every day. Dry them in saw-dust smoke; hang them in a cellar; and if they mould it will do them no harm, as these hams require damp and not extreme driness. Juniper-berries thrown into the fire at which they are smoked greatly improve their flavour.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 5.

One pound of common salt, one pound of bay salt, four ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of black pepper; pound them separately, then mix them, and rub the ham very well until the whole is used. Rub one pound of treacle on them; lay them in the pickle one month, turning them every day. The quant.i.ty here specified will do for two hams. Before you hang them up, steep them in a pail of water for twelve hours.

_Westphalia Ham, to cure._ No. 6.

Make a good brine of salt and water, sufficiently strong to bear an egg; boil and skim it clean, and when quite cold rub the meat with sal prunella and saltpetre mixed together. Put it in a vessel, and pour your brine into it; and, when the ham has been in the brine about fourteen days, take it out, drain it, and boil the brine, putting in a little salt, and letting it boil till clear. Skim it, and when cold put in your ham, rubbing it over with saltpetre, &c. as you did at first. Then let your ham again lie in the brine for three weeks longer; afterwards rub it well with bran, and have it dried by a wood fire.

_English Hams, to make like Westphalia._ No. 1.

Cut your legs of pork like hams; beat them well with a wooden mallet, till they are tender, but great care must be taken not to crack or break the skin, or the hams will be spoiled. To three hams take half a peck of salt, four ounces of saltpetre, and five pounds of coa.r.s.e brown sugar; break all the lumps, and mix them well together. Rub your hams well with this mixture, and cover them with the rest. Let them lie three days; then hang them up one night, and put as much water to the salt and sugar as you think will cover them; the pickle must be strong enough to bear an egg: boil and strain it, and, when it is cold, pack your hams close, and cover them with the pickle at least an inch and half above their tops. Let them lie for a fortnight; then hang them up one night; the next day rub them well with bran, and hang them in the chimney of a fire-place in which turf, wood, or sawdust is burned. If they are small they will be dry enough in a fortnight; if large, in two or three days more. Then hang them up against a wall near a fire, and not in a damp place. Tongues may be cured in the same manner, and ribs of beef may be put in at the same time with the hams. You must let the beef lie in the pickle three weeks, and take it out when you want to boil it without drying it.

_English Hams, to make like Westphalia._ No. 2.

Cut off with the legs of young well grown porkers part of the flesh of the hind loin; lay them on either side in cloths, and press out the remaining blood and moisture, laying planks on them with heavy weights, which bring them into form; then salt them well with common salt and sugar finely beaten, and lay them in troughs one upon another, pressed closely down and covered with hyssop. Let them remain thus for a fortnight; then pa.s.s through the common salt, and with saltpetre rub them well over, which may be continued three or four days, till they soak. Take them out, and hang them in a close barn or smoke-loft; make a moderate fire under them, if possible of juniper-wood, and let them hang to sweat and dry well. Afterwards hang them up in a dry and airy place to the wind for three or four days, which will remove the ill scent left by the smoke; and wrap them up in sweet hay. To dress them, put them into a kettle of water when it boils; keep them well covered till they are done, and very few can distinguish them from the true Westphalia.

_English Hams, to make like Westphalia._ No. 3.

Take a ham of fifteen or eighteen pounds weight, two ounces of saltpetre, one pound of coa.r.s.e sugar, one ounce of petre-salt, one ounce of bay salt, and one ounce of sal prunella, mixed with common salt enough to cover the ham completely. Turn your ham every other day, and let it remain in salt for three weeks. Take it out, rub a little bran over it, and dry it in a wood fire chimney, where a constant fire is kept: it will be fit for eating in a month. The quant.i.ty of the above ingredients must be varied according to the size of your ham. Before you dress it soak it over-night in water.

Hams from bacon pigs are better than pork. An onion shred small gives it a good flavour.

_Green Hams._

Salt a leg of pork as for boiling, with a little saltpetre to make it red. Let it lie three weeks in salt, and then hang for a month or six weeks; but if longer it is of no consequence. When boiled, stuff with young strawberry leaves and parsley, which must be particularly well washed or they will be gritty.

_Ham, to prepare for dressing without soaking._

Put the ham into a coa.r.s.e sack well tied up, or sew it up in a cloth.

Bury it three feet under ground in good mould; there let it remain for three or four days at least. This is an admirable way. The ham eats much mellower and finer than when soaked.

_Ham, to dress._

Boil the ham for two hours; take it out and trim it neatly all round; prepare in a stewpan some thin slices of veal, so as to cover the bottom; add to it two bunches of carrots sliced, six large onions, two cloves, two bunches of parsley, a tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper, a pint of beef jelly, a bottle of white wine, and three pints of boiling water.

Place the ham in the stewpan, and let it boil an hour and three quarters; then serve it immediately without sauce, preserving the sauce for other use.

_Ham, to roast._

Tie or sew up the ham in a coa.r.s.e cloth, put it into a sack, and bury it three or four feet under ground, for three or four days before you dress it. Wash it in warm water, pare it, and sc.r.a.pe the rind. Spit and lay it down to roast. Into a broad stewpan put a pint of white wine, a quart of good broth, half a pint of the best vinegar, two large onions sliced, a blade of mace, six cloves, some pepper, four bay-leaves, some sweet basil, and a sprig of thyme. Let all these have a boil; and set the liquor under the ham, and baste very frequently with it. When the ham is roasted, take up the pan; skim all the fat off; pour the liquor through a fine sieve; then take off the rind of the ham, and beat up the liquor with a bit of b.u.t.ter; put this sauce under, and serve it.

_Ham, entree of._

Cut a dozen slices of ham; take off the fat entirely; fry them gently in a little b.u.t.ter. Have a good brown rich sauce of gravy; and serve up hot, with pieces of fried bread, cut of a semicircular shape, of the same size as the pieces of ham, and laid between them.

_Ham toasts._

Cut slices of dressed ham, and thin slices of bread, or French roll, of the same shape; fry it in clarified b.u.t.ter; make the ham hot in cullis, or good gravy, thickened with a little floured b.u.t.ter. Dish the slices of ham on the toast; squeeze the juice of a Seville orange into the sauce; add a little pepper and salt; and pour it over them.

_Ham and Chicken, to pot. Mrs. Vanbrugh's receipt._

Put a layer of ham, then another of the white part of chicken, just as you would any other potted meat, into a pot. When it is cut out, it will shew a very pretty stripe. This is a delicate way of eating ham and chicken.

_Another way._

Take as much lean of a boiled ham as you please, and half the quant.i.ty of fat; cut it as thin as possible; beat it very fine in a mortar, with a little good oiled b.u.t.ter, beaten mace, pepper, and salt; put part of it into a china pot. Then beat the white part of a fowl with a very little seasoning to qualify the ham. Put a layer of chicken, then one of ham, then another of chicken at the top; press it hard down, and, when it is cold, pour clarified b.u.t.ter over it. When you send it to table in the pot, cut out a thin slice in the form of half a diamond, and lay it round the edge of the pot.