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Westphalian Ham, Boiled Delicately
After the ham has soaked all night in lukewarm water, it is laid in the kettle with water to the depth of about nine inches, a quart of wine, a little rosemary, a handful of sage, thyme, basil, marjoram, whole pepper, juniper-berries, and some whole onions. With these ingredients it must boil for four hours only, that is to say, to draw it. We may prevent its falling asunder by binding it in a clean old cloth. When completely tender, we take it out in the cloth, lay it on a dish, draw off the rind after removing the cloth, and ornament it with the rind. The more it is garnished the better it is. When cold, transfer the ham to a clean dish, and tastefully arrange parsley about it.
A cold-buffet centrepiece from the era of the standing sideboard. The hinge is the word "boil": at a true rolling boil for four hours the meat will shred and the outer inch will go dry and stringy, which is exactly why the recipe tells you to bind it in a cloth.
- Simmer, do not boilBring the pot up slowly and hold it at a bare tremble, around 180F, with the surface barely moving. Cook to an internal temperature of 150-160F at the thickest point rather than by the clock.
- Four hours is a size, not a ruleReckon roughly 20-25 minutes per pound after the water comes up to heat. A 10-12 lb bone-in ham is about what four hours suits; a 6 lb piece will be done in half that.
- The ham itselfWhat is sold as Westphalian ham today is a raw, cold-smoked ham sliced thin like prosciutto and never cooked. For this dish use a whole bone-in dry-cured or smoked gammon of the sort sold as country ham or a raw cured ham hock end.
- The overnight soakEssential with a heavily salted dry-cured ham, and still worth doing with a modern country ham. Change the water once or twice. A supermarket wet-cured "ready to cook" ham needs no soaking at all and will end up bland and waterlogged if given it.
- Nine inches of waterThis describes a deep stockpot, not a measurement to hit precisely. The ham should be covered by an inch or two of liquid throughout; top up with hot water as it evaporates.
- A quart of wineFour cups. The recipe does not specify a colour; a dry white is the usual reading. It is a flavouring in a large volume of water, so nothing expensive is warranted.
- The clothWrap the ham in a doubled length of muslin or cheesecloth and tie it with kitchen twine, leaving long ends to lift by. It is the surest way to get a fully tender ham out of a deep pot in one piece.
- Skinning and garnishStrip the rind while the ham is still hot, when it lifts away cleanly; once cold it clings. The Victorian habit of cutting the removed rind into shapes and laying it back over the fat can be skipped without loss.
- YieldA 14 lb bone-in ham serves 25-30 as a cold cut and keeps, well wrapped, about five days refrigerated.
Westphalia, in north-western Germany, built its reputation on hams from pigs said to have been fattened on beech mast and acorns, cured and then cold-smoked over beechwood with juniper — a description that is traditional lore as much as documented practice. Juniper berries turn up in the cooking liquor here too. The name had become a quality mark across nineteenth-century Europe, much as Parma or Bayonne had, and the recipe as Cassell's gives it reads as though it may have come from a German source: the collective "we may prevent", the herb list, and the instruction to draw the ham rather than cook it all read as translation. Its place in a British dictionary of cookery is the cold table. A whole boiled ham, skinned, glazed or garnished and set out on a dish with parsley, was standing furniture at Victorian breakfasts, suppers and ball refreshments, where it had to look handsome for several days and be carved by whoever passed it — hence the insistence that the more it is garnished, the better.