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York Ham, with Champagne
Cook a ham as directed in YORK HAM, TO BOIL. When three-parts done, remove the skin and place the ham in a long stewpan. Moisten with stock and half a bottle of dry champagne. Let this boil, then put on the lid of the stewpan, and set it in a moderately hot oven to finish cooking the ham, basting it often. Ten minutes before serving take the ham from the gravy, strain it, skim off all the fat, and add a little glaze to the liquor; reduce this quickly until thick enough. Garnish the ham with vegetables, such as peas, spinach, etc., and serve the sauce separately.
A cooked ham finished as a braise: the point is the second cooking in stock and wine, which perfumes the meat and gives you a sauce. Everything hinges on not letting it dry out.
- York hamA dry-salt-cured, mildly smoked or unsmoked whole leg, traditionally sold raw and needing long soaking and boiling. A modern equivalent is any raw, bone-in cured gammon or country ham of 10-14 lb; do not use a supermarket ready-cooked ham, which is already fully cooked and will fall apart in the braise.
- "Three-parts done"About three-quarters of the boiling time given in the ham-boiling article this entry cross-refers to; the ham should come out short of done, since the oven stage finishes it. Aim for a finished interior of 145-150F.
- Moderately hot ovenRoughly 350-375F. Too hot and the liquid reduces away before the ham is through; too cool and the ham simply sits in tepid liquid.
- Half a bottle of champagneAbout 375 ml. Any dry sparkling wine works, and the bubbles are irrelevant here; use a dry still white if that is what you have. Add enough stock to bring the liquid a third of the way up the ham, no more, or the sauce will not reduce in time.
- The stewpanA "long stewpan" is an oval braising pan or oval Dutch oven with a lid. A deep roasting tin covered tightly with foil serves, though you will lose more liquid to evaporation.
- GlazeMeat glaze, or glace de viande: veal or beef stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. A tablespoon of a commercial concentrate or demi-glace does the same job. It is there for body and colour, not seasoning, so taste before adding salt; the braising liquid is already salty from the ham.
- Reducing the sauceTen minutes at a hard boil in a wide pan will take a couple of cups of skimmed liquid to a coating consistency. Skim the fat thoroughly first or the reduction turns greasy rather than glossy.
- Resting and carvingLet the ham stand 20 minutes under foil before slicing, and carve in thin sheets parallel to the bone. A 12 lb ham of this kind serves 20 or more, and is as much a buffet centrepiece as a dinner.
York ham took its name from the city, where the dry-salt cure and long, cool maturing produced a paler, milder, more delicate leg than the heavily smoked hams of Westphalia or the sweet-cured Virginia style; "York ham" was never a protected origin but functioned as a style or grade, and hams cured in the York manner were produced well beyond the city. The habit of boiling a ham and then finishing it in wine belongs to the grand service of the same period, when a whole glazed ham was a legible piece of sideboard display. Cassell's, an alphabetical household dictionary rather than a chef's manual, gathers such set-pieces alongside plain family cooking: the entry assumes a cook who already knows how to boil the ham, and cross-refers her to the earlier article rather than repeating it.