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Fried Ham with Eggs
Cut the ham into slices of a uniform thickness, and, if it is very hard and salt, soak it for eight or ten minutes in hot water, then drain, and dry it in a cloth. Cut off the rind, put the slices in a scrupulously clean cold frying-pan, and turn them two or three times during cooking. Put them on a hot dish, and if the fat is in the least discolored, poach the eggs separately. Break the eggs, taking care not to break the yolks, and slip them into the pan. Gutter the whites over the yolks with two spoons, to shape the eggs like a ball. Take them up with a slice, drain them from the fat, and place them on the ham. Serve as hot as possible. Time, seven or eight minutes to fry the ham. Sufficient, a pound of ham and six eggs for three persons.
A Victorian breakfast plate rather than a sausage dish, this is fried ham with eggs basted in the ham fat. Nearly everything hinges on how salty your ham is and how clean the pan stays.
- The hamThe recipe allows for a ham that is "very hard and salt," i.e. a dry cure cut from a whole joint, rather than the wet-cured sandwich ham sold sliced today. If you are using thin supermarket ham, skip the soaking entirely and cut the frying time to a minute or two a side.
- Soaking for saltEight to ten minutes in hot water draws down surface salt on a genuinely hard cure. Dry the slices thoroughly afterwards or they will steam rather than brown.
- ThicknessThe recipe asks only for slices of uniform thickness, so that they cook evenly in the seven or eight minutes given. Thicker slices will need longer over lower heat, or the edges will harden before the centre warms through.
- No added fatThe cold pan is deliberate: the ham renders its own fat as it heats, which then cooks the eggs. Starting cold and raising the heat gradually gives more rendered fat and less scorching.
- Why the pan must be cleanAny browned residue or discoloured fat will speckle and toughen the egg whites. When the fat darkens, the recipe sensibly diverts to poaching the eggs separately.
- Basting the eggsThe instruction is to gather the whites over the yolks with two spoons so the egg sets in a rounded shape. Spooning hot fat over the top achieves the same thing with less fuss and sets the white film over the yolk.
- Egg donenessThe yolks here are left soft. If you are serving anyone who should avoid runny eggs, cook until both white and yolk are firm.
- YieldA pound of ham and six eggs for three, as given, is a substantial breakfast portion by current standards; four will eat from it comfortably alongside toast.