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Ham, Minced
Take a pound of lean ham already cooked; mince it very finely, and mix with it a little cayenne and a blade of mace, powdered. Put it into a saucepan with two table-spoonfuls of cream and half a pint of good veal stock. Stir it over the fire for a few minutes until quite hot, but it must not boil, and serve on buttered toast. This is a good dish for breakfast or supper. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A Victorian breakfast savoury built from cooked ham and stock. The only real technique is heat control: the mixture must stay below a simmer.
- Do not let it boilCream plus a lean, salty, already-cooked meat will curdle and toughen if it reaches a simmer. Keep it at a bare steaming heat and stir until just hot through, three or four minutes at most.
- Half a pintThis is a British Imperial half-pint, 10 fl oz or about 1¼ US cups. That is a generous amount of liquid for a pound of mince; reduce it or add less at first if you want a mixture that sits on toast rather than soaking it.
- Veal stockRarely sold now. A light unsalted chicken stock is the closest substitute; a good jellied brown stock will also work but darkens the dish. Use unsalted stock in any case, since the ham brings plenty of salt.
- A blade of mace, powderedA blade is one piece of the dried outer covering of nutmeg, roughly ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon once ground. Ground mace from a jar is fine; a fine grating of nutmeg is the usual stand-in.
- Mincing the hamVictorian mincing meant a knife or a hand mincer, giving a coarse, textured result. A food processor will turn ham to paste in seconds, so pulse briefly or chop by hand.
- CreamVictorian cream varied in richness, but something of double or heavy cream thickness suits this best. Single cream or half-and-half is thinner and more likely to split at heat.
- YieldServes two or three as a light dish, on hot buttered toast. Make it immediately before serving; it does not hold well and reheating risks the curdling the recipe warns against.
Minced ham dishes of this kind belonged to the Victorian and Edwardian breakfast and supper table, where cold cooked meat from an earlier meal was often turned into something hot on toast rather than served again as slices. The ham here is already cooked, and the dish is one way of using it. Such savouries sat alongside devilled kidneys, kedgeree and anchovy toast in the same repertoire, all of them quick, highly seasoned and dependent on a stockpot being kept going in the kitchen. Veal stock was a neutral pale stock, used in households running a proper larder for dishes that should taste of their main ingredient rather than of beef.