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Ham and Egg Patties
Chop enough cold boiled ham to make one cup. Mix with onequarter cup of fine bread crumbs and add four tablespoons of milk and two tablespoons of melted butter. Butter some little pattypans, and fill half full, break an egg on each and dust with salt and pepper, then cover with fine bread crumbs and bake.
— Mrs. Wendell S. Sherman
A straightforward baked egg dish that assumes knowledge the original cook took for granted: no oven temperature, no baking time, no yield. Here is what to fill in.
- PattypansThese are small individual tins, on the order of a modern muffin cup. A standard 12-cup muffin tin works; ramekins set on a sheet pan work better still, since they are easier to serve from.
- Oven temperatureNone is given. Bake at 350F. Higher heat sets the white before the yolk warms and toughens the ham layer underneath.
- Timing and donenessFigure 12 to 18 minutes, depending on the depth of the tin. The whites should be fully opaque and the crumb topping lightly coloured. If you want the yolk firm, allow the full time and expect a slightly dry ham base.
- SaltCured ham carries a great deal of salt already, and older home-cured or heavily salted boiled ham may well have been saltier than much supermarket ham today. Season the eggs lightly and taste the ham mixture before adding any.
- The crumb layerThe crumbs on top likely help keep the white from drying and browning. Toss them with a little melted butter before scattering, or they scorch in patches while the egg is still setting.
- Filling depth"Fill half full" matters. The ham mixture must leave room for the egg to sit in a shallow well; overfilled cups push the egg over the rim as everything expands.
- YieldOne cup of chopped ham with the crumbs and liquid fills about six muffin-sized cups, so six eggs and six servings as a breakfast or supper dish.
Baked eggs in individual dishes appeared on American and English breakfast and luncheon tables through the later nineteenth century, and this version belongs to the larger family of receipts built around using up cold boiled ham -- a ham cooked whole could be sliced hot, then served cold, then chopped into hash, croquettes, sandwiches and dishes like this one. Community cookbooks of this kind are full of that logic. The signature line is characteristic too: contributors were commonly named as married women.