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Broiled Ham and Eggs
Broil thin slice of ham over hot coals, turning often; then place them upon a heated platter, and spread well with butter. Poach some fresh eggs and place around the ham, with a piece of butter on each egg, and a little salt and pepper. This is a very delicate way of cooking ham and eggs.
A three-line breakfast that depends entirely on two things: thin ham and eggs that are not overcooked. Everything else is assembly.
- "Over hot coals"This means a bed of glowing coals or the open grate of a coal range, not an enclosed oven. A ridged grill pan over medium-high heat, a gas grill, or an overhead broiler with the rack about 4 inches from the element all give the same result.
- What ham this isNineteenth-century breakfast ham was usually dry-cured and salty, sliced thin from a whole ham. Modern wet-cured deli ham or a boneless steak works, but it is far milder and much wetter; it will steam rather than brown unless the pan is properly hot and the slices are patted dry.
- Slice thickness and timingThin means about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. At that thickness the ham needs roughly 1 to 2 minutes a side, turning often as instructed. Modern ham is usually sold fully cooked, so you are mainly browning the edges and rendering the fat; longer and it turns leathery.
- The butteringSpreading butter on hot ham on a warmed platter is doing real work here. It melts into the salty rendered fat and becomes the only sauce the dish has. Use a good unsalted butter and let it pool rather than mopping it away.
- PoachingSimmering water with a splash of vinegar, eggs slid in from a cup, 3 minutes for a set white and a liquid yolk. Fresh eggs, as the original says, hold their shape; older ones spread. Lift with a slotted spoon and blot on a towel so poaching water does not thin the butter on the platter.
- SaltSeason the eggs only. Dry-cured ham brings more than enough salt to the plate, and a pass of the pepper mill over the whole platter is usually the better move.
- YieldReckon two thin slices and one or two eggs per person. The dish does not hold; warm the platter, cook the ham while the poaching water comes up, and serve at once.
Ham and eggs was a common American breakfast through the nineteenth century for households that could afford it, because both were things a household with a pig and a few hens produced itself. The ham hung cured in the smokehouse and kept all year, and eggs came in daily, so the pairing was less a recipe than an inventory. What may mark this version as a slightly refined one is the poaching: frying the eggs in the ham fat was quicker and needed only one pan, while poaching them separately and arranging them around the meat on a heated platter turns a farm breakfast into something for a dining room. Hence the author's closing note that it is "a very delicate way" -- "delicate" in period cookbooks often signalling a dish thought suitable for guests, invalids, or a lighter appetite.