Ham Steak
Cut slices of raw ham, put in the frying pan with water enough to cover them, when the water has boiled away, and the ham, which has been turned, is brown, dredge them with flour and pour over them a sauce made in this way: one cupful of milk, part cream if you have it, a small piece of butter, one teaspoonful of mustard and a dash of cayenne pepper. Let it just boil and pour over the ham.
A country-ham breakfast steak: the water bath tames the salt and tenderizes the meat, and the pan browning and mustard cream follow in the same skillet. Two points decide the outcome — the kind of ham you buy, and not letting the sauce sit on the heat.
- "Raw ham" means dry-cured"Raw ham" here means cured but uncooked — most likely a slice off a country ham, firm and deeply salty. The pink "ham steak" in a supermarket cooler is wet-cured and usually sold fully cooked; it needs no simmering at all and will turn to string if given any. Look for country ham, or a slice cut from a whole cured leg at a butcher.
- The water is a de-salting stepCovering with water and boiling it away is not just cooking — it draws out salt and softens a hard cure. A slice about half an inch thick will take 15 to 25 minutes for the water to reduce. If your ham is very salty, pour off the first water partway and add fresh.
- Slice thicknessThe recipe gives no thickness; a hand-cut slice of roughly 1/3 to 1/2 inch suits the method. Thinner slices will be dry and salty by the time the water is gone; thicker ones need a longer simmer before browning.
- Dredging with flourThe flour goes onto the browned ham in the hot pan, where it picks up fat and drippings. It is what lightly thickens the cream sauce once it is poured over, so keep the dusting even and thin — a heavy coat gives a pasty result.
- The sauce is barely cookedOne cup of milk (part cream), a small piece of butter — a tablespoon is a reasonable reading — one teaspoon of mustard and cayenne, brought just to a boil and no further. Long cooking dulls mustard, and if you make the sauce in the pan that has just held the browning ham the milk will catch easily; the recipe does not say which pan to use.
- MustardIn a book of this period a teaspoonful of mustard most likely means dry mustard powder rather than a prepared jarred mustard. If you substitute prepared mustard, use about a tablespoon and expect a sharper, more vinegary sauce.
- Season at the end, if at allNo salt is listed, and none is wanted. Cured ham will salt the sauce as the two sit together; taste before adding anything.
- YieldThe recipe states no yield; one cup of sauce and a slice or two of ham would serve about two, alongside eggs, fried apples or hot biscuits.
Ham steak with a milk or cream gravy is a fixture of American farmhouse breakfasts, growing directly out of the practice of curing a hog in autumn and living off the salted leg through the year. A dry cure keeps meat for months without refrigeration but leaves it hard and very salty, so cooks developed the parboil-then-fry method seen here. The better-known relative is red-eye gravy, made by deglazing the same pan with coffee; this version reaches instead for milk, butter and mustard.