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Ham, Roasted
Soak the ham until it is softened, then put it into a deep pan, and pour over it a bottle of Madeira, or any light wine, and with it four carrots, four onions, and one dozen peppercorns. Turn it over every two or three hours, and leave it until the following day. Drain it, put it down before a clear fire, and baste liberally with the liquid in which it was soaked. It will require four or five hours to roast, according to the size. Take it up, skin, and glaze it; boil up the gravy, etc., which should be sent to table in a tureen. It is a good plan to boil the ham for an hour before it is put into the marinade, when, of course, it will not need to be roasted quite so long. Probable cost, 1s. per pound.
This assumes a whole dry-salted ham and an open fire, both of which need translating. The hinge is the soak: a Victorian ham carried far more salt than anything sold today, and skipping or over-doing this step decides whether the dish is edible.
- What kind of hamThe recipe means a whole bone-in dry-cured ham, uncooked and hard-salted, of the sort that hung for months. A modern wet-cured, ready-cooked supermarket ham needs no soaking at all and only reheating; if you use a genuine dry-cured country ham, soak it 12-24 hours in several changes of cold water, refrigerated.
- "A bottle of Madeira"Roughly 750 ml. Any dry or medium Madeira works, as does a dry sherry or a light red; the point is acidity and sugar for the glaze, not a fine wine.
- Marinating overnightDo this in the refrigerator, not at room temperature, turning two or three times rather than every two or three hours.
- Fire to oven"Down before a clear fire" is spit-roasting with radiant heat. In an oven, use 325F, covered for most of the time and uncovered for the last stretch, basting with the marinade.
- Time and temperatureFour to five hours suits a 12-15 lb ham; go by an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part away from the bone, 145-150F for a raw cured ham. If you take the original's option of boiling it for an hour first, it says only that the roasting will not need to be quite so long.
- Skin and glazePeel off the rind while the ham is still hot, leaving the fat, score it, and brush with reduced marinade or a sugar-and-mustard glaze; 425F for 10-15 minutes sets it. Watch it, as the sugars catch quickly.
- The gravyThe marinade has been in contact with raw meat, so the instruction to boil it up is not optional. Strain out the carrots, onions and peppercorns and reduce it hard before it goes to the tureen.
- YieldA ham of this size serves 15-20 hot, with plenty left to eat cold, cold ham being a common feature of the Victorian table.
Before refrigeration, a ham was a preserved food first: heavily salted, often smoked, and kept for months, which is why the recipe opens not with cooking but with soaking out the cure. The wine marinade with carrot, onion and peppercorn recalls the French braising tradition applied to an English store-cupboard staple, and Madeira was a familiar British kitchen wine in the nineteenth century. Cassell's gives a probable cost for its dishes, which would let a housekeeper judge them against the week's budget; roasting a whole ham before the fire for five hours would have suited a large household with someone on hand to baste it.