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Ham Toasts, or Croutes Au Jambon
Cut some slices of bread about a quarter of an inch thick. Scoop out some of the centre to the depth of about an eighth of an inch, and about two inches in diameter. Dip the slices in melted butter, and cover with grated Parmesan cheese. Cut some raw Yorkshire ham into pieces the same size as the scooped out cavities of the bread. Lay a piece on each, then put two pieces together in the form of a sandwich; put on a baking dish with a little clarified butter, and bake in a moderate oven to a light brown colour, turning over to let each side be equally baked. Drain on a cloth, or blotting paper, and serve hot on a napkin.
A late-Victorian savoury: two cheese-buttered rounds of bread closed over a scrap of cured ham and baked until crisp. The instructions assume a cook who knows what a moderate oven and a scooped crouton look like, so a few translations help.
- Moderate ovenRead this as somewhere around 350F. At 1/4 inch thick the bread should brown in a fairly short bake, so watch for the light brown colour the recipe asks for rather than a set time, turning once partway through.
- "Raw Yorkshire ham"Not fresh pork. Yorkshire ham is dry-salt-cured and was generally sold uncooked for the cook to cook, so "raw" here most likely distinguishes it from ready-boiled ham. Thinly sliced uncooked gammon, or a slice of prosciutto or country ham, gives much the same effect.
- Cut the ham thinThis is the hinge. The bread sets the timing, so the ham has to be thin enough to be done when the crust is light brown. An 1/8-inch slice, matching the depth of the scooped hollow, is right; anything thicker leaves cured pork underdone in a browned sandwich.
- The scoopingYou are hollowing a shallow well about 2 inches across, not cutting through the slice. A round cutter to score the circle and the tip of a teaspoon to lift out the crumb is the quickest way.
- Clarified butterWhole butter's milk solids scorch more readily than clear fat, which is the usual reason period recipes call for it in the baking dish. Ghee works, or melt butter and pour off the clear fat, leaving the white sediment behind.
- ParmesanGrate it finely so it adheres to the buttered surface. A dry, well-aged piece browns; pre-grated tub cheese tends to powder off and scorch.
- Draining and servingBlotting paper means paper towel. Serving fried or crisp things on a folded napkin is a common instruction in Victorian cookery books, keeping the base dry between kitchen and table.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. Since two slices are pressed together for each toast, eight slices of a standard sandwich loaf make about four finished toasts.
Croutes and croutons au jambon belong to the savoury, the small salted course that closed a formal English dinner after the sweets and before dessert fruit - a habit peculiar enough to English dining. The French name here is decoration: Cassell's gave dishes a French title because that was the language of professional service, then explained them in workaday English. The choice of Yorkshire ham is not incidental either. Dry-cured, long-hung and sold uncooked, it was named for a curing style rather than a single producer, and a cook was expected to know that it needed cooking in a way that boiled ham did not.