Home › Some Useful Recipes › How to Bake a Ham

How to Bake a Ham

Skin the ham after boiling. Lay two flat pieces of wood in the bottom of the bake pan; lay the ham on them, and cover with a batter of flour and water spread equally. Bake two or three hours slowly, according to the size of the ham, remove the crust of batter, garnish and serve. It is excellent hot or cold, and all the better for having a half-pint of claret poured over it; or it may be eaten with a sauce of which wine is the basis.

XVI. Baked Beans.

THE marrow beans are really best, but the small navy beans are generally used. Put them to soak early in the evening, change the water before going to bed, and again in the morning. Parboil for two hours, or until they are tender, but will not break up. Pour off nearly all the water. Place the beans in a bean-pot-a deep pan will do if unsoldered. Score a piece of salt pork. Sink it into the middle of the beans, so it is just level with the surface, and add a very little molasses. Bake six hours, raising the pork toward the last so it may be well browned. To cook beans in the camp, after boiling, a hole is dug at the foot of the fire, filled with hot coals, the bean-pot is filled around with coals and covered with hot ashes, where it remains from supper-time in the evening until breakfast the following morning-about fourteen or fifteen hours. This, in fact, is the perfection of art in cooking beans for imparting a fine flavor.

XVII. Broiling and Frying.

In broiling and frying the same principle is carried out as in roasting, but it is somewhat different from that of baking. In baking, heat is applied to all sides of the meat during the whole operation. In roasting before the fire, heat is applied alternately to every side of the meat; the same thing is done in broiling and frying. Frying comes nearer to baking than broiling does, when the frying is done in a skilla with little fat. In broiling the meat comes into direct contact with the heat of the fire and is altogether preferable, except for ham, pork, bacon and fish, which are generally fried. The thing to do, in both broiling and frying, is to have a strong, clear fire, without smoke-hard coal, charcoal, or the coals of hard wood, are indispensable for broiling. Now that so many excellent and cheap implements for broiling are manufactured, so that the steak, cutlets, fish, etc., may be clasped between the leaves, thus saving the handling, frying is pretty much discontinued. In fact, in frying now, the articles