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Ham and Eggs, Moulded
Chop finely half a pound of cold boiled ham. Mix with it half a pint of cream and the white of an egg beaten to a froth. Mix well; line several greased moulds with the mixture; break a raw egg carefully in the centre of each, and bake for ten minutes in a moderately quick oven. If baked in tin moulds it will be necessary to turn out before serving, but this is so difficult to do without breaking the eggs that it is better to use earthenware fireproof dishes in which they may be served.
A Victorian version of what a French kitchen would call œufs en cocotte, with a chopped ham lining standing in for a buttered dish. The recipe hinges on the oven being hot enough to set the ham mixture before the yolks overcook, and on the moulds being small.
- Oven temperature"Moderately quick" in Victorian usage falls somewhere around 375-400F, though the book gives no equivalents. Too cool an oven and the ham and cream may not set within ten minutes.
- Half a pint of creamAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, or about 1¼ US cups. Use heavy or whipping cream; the fat is what binds the chopped ham as it heats.
- The mouldsTake the author's advice and use individual earthenware ramekins; small ones, of a few fluid ounces, suit best. The recipe itself says turning a set egg out of a tin mould without breaking it is very difficult.
- Lining the mouldsPress the ham mixture up the sides in a layer no thicker than a quarter inch and leave a clear hollow in the centre. A thick layer will still be loose in the middle when the egg is done.
- HamHalf a pound of cold boiled ham means leftover cooked ham off the bone, chopped fine by knife rather than reduced to paste in a processor. Deli ham will work but is wetter and saltier; add no salt.
- Ten minutesAt that time and temperature the whites will be just set and the yolks still soft, which is the intended result. Anyone avoiding undercooked egg should either bake longer, accepting a firm yolk, or choose another dish.
- YieldEnough for four ramekins as a light supper or breakfast dish; six if the moulds are small and something else is served alongside.
Cassell's New Dictionary of Cookery belongs to the late-Victorian and Edwardian era of the alphabetical household compendium, when the ambition was to have an entry for every dish a middle-class kitchen might attempt, arranged for quick lookup rather than read through. The dish itself is a domesticated cousin of the French œuf en cocotte — an egg baked in a small dish with cream and a savoury lining — and it reflects two enthusiasms of the period: the moulded, turned-out form, which appears everywhere from jellies to potted meats, and the systematic use of cold cooked joints. Boiled ham was a standing item in the larder of any house that could afford one, and a great deal of Victorian recipe writing exists to give yesterday's ham, beef or fowl a second appearance at a different meal. That the author admits the moulds will not turn out cleanly, and tells the cook to abandon the attempt, is a small piece of honesty not always found in books of this kind.