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Ham with Madiera
Put a ham that is not very salt into your boiler, with water sufficient to cover it; let it warm gradually over the fire; when the water has become scalding hot, turn it off; take out the ham, scrape it clean, wash it well and return it to the boiler with two quarts of cold water, one onion, one carrot, cut in slices; put this over a moderate fire, and when it boils, add a few bay leaves, a bunch of parsley, a dozen cloves and one bottle of Madeira; let the whole simmer three hours, turn off the liquor, take off all the fat, thicken some of the liquor for gravy, trim off the skin nicely, put a ruffle on the bone and serve.
This is a whole bone-in ham braised in wine and aromatics, written when hams were far saltier and far less cooked than what you buy now. Two things need rethinking before you start: the size of the ham relative to the liquid, and whether the initial scalding is needed at all.
- The first scalding is about salt, not cleanlinessThe first scalding probably did double duty -- the hot bath loosened the rind for scraping and drew off some surface salt, and the recipe's own next words are "scrape it clean, wash it well." Note that the author asks for a ham "that is not very salt" to begin with. A modern wet-cured supermarket ham is mild and usually sold fully cooked, so the step can generally be skipped; keep it if you are working with a genuine dry-cured country ham.
- "Boiler"A large lidded stockpot or a covered roaster. Two quarts plus a bottle of wine will not cover a large ham, so a vessel you can cover helps, though the recipe says nothing about a lid.
- Ham size and liquidThe recipe gives no weight. Two quarts of water plus a bottle of wine is a shallow braise rather than a full immersion, so it suits a smaller half ham; a large whole ham will need more liquid or frequent basting. Turn the ham once at the halfway point so both sides sit in the braise.
- One bottle of MadeiraReckon on a modern 750 ml bottle, though period bottle sizes varied. Use a dry to medium style such as Sercial or Verdelho rather than the salted supermarket "cooking Madeira," which will push an already salty ham over the edge. Sherry is the nearest substitute.
- Three hours, and how to checkJudge by temperature rather than the clock. A raw or partly cured ham is done at 145F at the thickest point away from the bone; a pre-cooked ham needs only reheating to about 140F, which will usually take well under the three hours specified. Hard boiling will make the meat stringy.
- Simmer means simmerThe recipe calls for a "moderate fire" to bring the pot up, then says "let the whole simmer three hours." Aim for the lowest setting that keeps the surface barely moving; a rolling boil tightens the muscle fibres.
- The gravyThe recipe says only to thicken some of the strained liquor; skim the fat first, and thicken with a beurre manie or a light roux. Taste before adding any salt, as ham liquor can be salty on its own, more so if you reduce it.
- The ruffleA frilled paper cuff slipped over the exposed shank bone, sold as a cutlet frill or papillote. Purely decorative, and easily improvised from a folded strip of parchment.
- YieldThe recipe gives no weight, so no firm count is possible; a half ham will comfortably feed a table with leftovers. Slice thin off the bone.
Madeira held a peculiar place in American cooking well into the twentieth century: fortified for the sea voyage and unusually resistant to spoiling once opened, it survived in pantries where table wine would have spoiled, and it turns up in period recipes for soups, sauces, terrapin and cakes far more often than in the glass. Pouring a whole bottle over a ham marks this out as a company dish rather than an everyday one, though the recipe itself calls for a ham that is not very salt. The paper ruffle on the bone belongs to the same impulse as the aspic and the piped border in books of this era, when a joint was expected to arrive at the table dressed for view.