Broiled Ham
Cut the ham in slices of medium thickness, place on a hot gridiron, and broil until the fat readily flows out and the meat is slightly browned, take from the gridiron with a knife and fork, drop into a pan of cold water, then return again to the gridiron, repeat several times, and the ham is done; place in a hot platter, add a few lumps of butter, and serve at once. If too fat, trim off a part; it is almost impossible to broil the fat part without burning, but this does not impair the taste. Pickled pork and breakfast bacon may be broiled in the same way. -Mrs. A. E. Brand, Minneapolis, Minn.
A one-technique recipe whose whole point is the odd instruction in the middle: the slices are repeatedly plunged into cold water between turns on the fire. It works, but it assumes a hard dry-cured ham and a bed of coals, neither of which most kitchens have.
- The water dip is the hingeDropping the hot slice into cold water and returning it to the heat is presumably meant to firm the surface and rinse off salt and rendered fat, but the recipe gives no reason for it and none is obvious. Shake or pat the slice before it goes back on, or the water will steam rather than sear, and expect flare-ups from the drips.
- What ham this meansNineteenth-century home ham was dry-cured, heavily salted, often smoked, and firm enough to survive being dunked and re-grilled. Supermarket ham is wet-cured, already fully cooked and much wetter and milder; it needs only a minute or two a side to brown and does not benefit from the water treatment. Reserve this method for a genuine country ham or a thick slab of dry-cured gammon.
- GridironA frame of parallel iron bars set over live coals; hinged versions also existed. A charcoal grill is the closest equivalent; a ridged cast-iron pan over high heat or an oven broiler at full heat will do, though neither gives the smoke.
- Slices of medium thicknessThe recipe does not specify; a quarter to a half inch is the usual range for broiling ham. Much thicker and the edges will char before the middle is done; paper-thin slices curl and toughen on the first turn.
- SaltA true dry-cured slice can be aggressively salty. Cooks of the period sometimes soaked slices in milk or water for an hour beforehand; the repeated dipping here does some of the same work. Taste before you add anything else salty to the plate.
- On the burning fatMrs. Brand is right that the fat edge scorches, and right that a little char is not fatal to the flavour. Trimming the fat back to a quarter inch, or slashing it at intervals so it does not buckle, keeps the slice flat on the bars.
- Butter and servingThe lumps of butter melt into the rendered fat and salt on the hot platter and become the sauce. Serve immediately: broiled ham stiffens as it cools. One slice per person as a breakfast or supper dish; two if it is the centre of the meal.
- Pickled porkPork cured in brine. It is very salty and wants parboiling or a long soak before it sees the fire.
Buckeye Cookery (Minneapolis and Marysville, Ohio, from the 1870s onward) was assembled from contributions by named housekeepers across the Midwest, which is why this entry carries Mrs. A. E. Brand's name and address. Broiled ham was breakfast food in a household that cured its own pork: a hog killed in late autumn yielded hams that hung in the smokehouse and were sliced down through the winter and spring, so a technique for cooking a single firm salty slice over the morning fire was worth writing down. The cold-water dip is set down here without explanation, and it makes most sense when the meat in question is drier and saltier than anything sold under the name ham today.