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Ham Steaks
Cut some rather thick slices from a York ham, dredge with flour, and put them into a frying-pan with a tea-cupful of water. Cook slowly, turning them two or three times till the steaks are of a light brown. Then lay them on a hot dish. Thicken the liquor in which they were cooked with a little tomato sauce, and pour it over. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper, and serve.
A simple braise-then-glaze method for raw cured ham, from the era when a whole York ham hung in the larder and slices were cut off as needed. Two details matter: the thickness of the cut and the fact that the water is there to cook the ham through, not to keep it moist.
- York ham means raw dry-cured hamA York ham is a mild dry-salted, unsmoked or lightly smoked leg, sold raw and requiring cooking. Modern supermarket "ham" is already cooked and wet-cured, and will turn dry and salty by this method. Use raw gammon steaks, or slices cut from a country-style dry-cured ham.
- Thickness"Rather thick" is not defined in the recipe; about 1/2 inch works well. Much thicker and the tea-cupful of water will boil away before the centre is done; thinner and it curls and overcooks in the pan.
- A tea-cupfulSomewhere around 5 to 6 fl oz (a quarter-pint was the usual reckoning). Enough to come part way up the steaks and steam them as it reduces.
- Soak first if the ham is saltyDry-cured ham of this period was salted for keeping and often soaked before cooking. Taste a corner of a cooked trimming; if it is aggressively salty, soak the steaks an hour in cold water and pat dry before dredging.
- TimingTen to fifteen minutes total over a low heat for 1/2-inch steaks, turning as directed. Gammon toughens quickly once past done; take it off when the flour coating has gone light brown and the meat is just firm.
- The pan liquorBy the time the ham is browned the water should have reduced to a few spoonfuls thickened by the dredging flour. If it has boiled dry, add a splash more water off the heat and scrape the pan before stirring in the tomato sauce.
- Tomato sauceIn Victorian usage this generally means a cooked, sieved, seasoned sauce rather than modern bottled ketchup, though period recipes vary and many included vinegar and spice. Bottled ketchup will make the dish sweet; plain tomato passata reduced with a little butter is a safe substitute.
- YieldOne 1/2-inch steak per person, two to four steaks in a large frying pan. Serve with mashed or boiled potatoes and something sharp - mustard, or a green vegetable.
York ham is traditionally associated with the city's curing trade, and by the late nineteenth century the term was used loosely across Britain for any pale, mild, dry-salted leg cured without heavy smoke; the Yorkshire association is traditional rather than a protected designation. The method is a stock technique rather than a set-piece dish: cook a cured meat gently in a little water so the liquid both tempers the salt and becomes, with the flour from the dredging, the sauce. Tomato sauce and cayenne were a common period counterweight to salt pork and ham.