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Ham Toast (Mince about one pint boiled)
Mince about one pint boiled lean ham.
Add the yolks of three eggs well beaten, two tablespoonfuls cream, and a little cayenne pepper.
Stir all on the fire until it thickens, and spread on hot toast with the crust cut off.--Mrs. J. T. B.
A savoury creamed-ham spread of the kind Victorian households served for breakfast, high tea or supper. The whole recipe turns on gentle heat.
- The hinge: low heatThree yolks with only two tablespoons of cream will scramble into curds within seconds over direct flame. Use the lowest possible burner or a bowl set over simmering water, and pull it off while it is still a loose, glossy paste — it stiffens as it cools.
- A pint of minced hamMeasured by volume, not weight: about 10-12 oz of cooked lean ham, finely chopped or pulsed in a food processor. Deli ham works, but a piece cut from a bone-in cooked ham has far better flavour.
- CreamHand-skimmed nineteenth-century cream varied a good deal in richness, but heavy cream is the safer modern substitute here; half-and-half is thin for the job. Two tablespoons is enough only if the ham is moist; add a third if the mixture looks dry before the yolks go in.
- Cayenne, and salt"A little cayenne" means a pinch or two — enough to warm, not to sting. The recipe calls for no salt; cured ham is salty on its own, so taste before serving and correct.
- ToastCut the crusts off after toasting, not before, and butter the bread lightly so the mixture does not soak straight through. Thick white sandwich bread holds up better than an open-crumbed loaf.
- YieldEnough for six to eight small slices, so four servings as a light supper or eight cut into fingers as a savoury. It does not reheat well; the yolks turn granular.
Ham toast belongs to the family of "savouries" and breakfast relishes that filled out a Southern table between larger dishes — potted meats, deviled ham, cheese straws, anything that used up the last of a cured shoulder or the dry end near the bone. Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1877), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions credited on the title page to some two hundred and fifty Virginia housewives, is full of such economies, and the attribution to initials rather than a full name is typical of the book: recipes came in from friends and neighbours and were printed as sent. Virginia ham, dry-salted and long-aged, was both a farm provision and a celebrated product sold well beyond the region, and its scraps were recycled into exactly this sort of dish.