HAM BALLS
Chop fine, cold, cooked ham; add an egg for each person, and a little flour; beat together, make into balls, and fry brown in hot butter.
A fragment recipe with no quantities beyond the eggs, so the proportions are yours to judge. The result is closer to a soft ham fritter than a firm croquette.
- The ratio is the whole problemThe recipe fixes the eggs but not the ham, so the binding is left to you. As a starting point, figure roughly 1 cup finely chopped ham and 2 tablespoons flour per egg, and let the mixture rest 10 minutes before you shape anything.
- If it will not holdAdd flour a spoonful at a time, or a few dry breadcrumbs, until a spoonful keeps its shape on the plate. Recipes of this brevity leave the adjusting to the cook.
- Chop, do not grindA food processor turns cold ham to paste and the balls come out gummy. Hand-chop to a fine dice, or pulse briefly so some texture survives.
- Butter and heatButter browns fast at frying temperature. Use clarified butter, or half butter and half a neutral oil, over medium heat; the egg needs a few minutes to set through and scorched butter will beat it there.
- Drop rather than rollTwo spoons and a gentle drop into the pan work better than rolling by hand. Flatten each slightly so the center cooks before the outside darkens — about 3 minutes a side.
- SeasoningNone is specified. Taste the ham first; modern supermarket ham is generally milder than period cured ham, and will want pepper, mustard, or chopped parsley.
- YieldOne egg per person suggests a small portion, a breakfast or luncheon dish alongside toast or fried potatoes rather than a main course.
Nineteenth-century household books commonly treated a boiled or baked ham as a resource to be used down over several days: the center slices first, then the trimmings chopped into hash, croquettes, scallops, and balls like these. The technique is the same one behind the fish cake and the croquette generally, and measurement by persons rather than by weight is a familiar habit in recipes of this brevity.