Ham
Good, boiled; better, baked ; best of all, roasted.
But roast ham is rare because it is difficult; baked ham is easier, and boiled easiest of all.
Boiled Ham.-Soak an English ham for twenty-four, a Spanish one forty-eight hours. Scrape it and cleanse it carefully. Boil it or braze it in liquor and seasoning enough to cover it. For very simple tastes water alone is used, Ham together with carrots, onions, celery, cloves, mace, thyme and bayleaves. For a very fine ham use a Mirepoix into which about a pint of wine enters, and add broth to make up the remainder of the liquor. For something between these two take a quart of old cider, together with carrots, onions, and a faggot of sweet-herbs, using water for whatever else of liquor may be required. Simmer it or braze it very slowly indeed for four or five hours, according to size. Then lift it out of its pan-take off the rind and let it dry for a minute or two in the oven after which it is to be trimmed, and it may be either glazed in the French fashion, or in English fashion strewed with raspings. If the ham is to be served cold let it cool in its liquor, then remove the rind, trim it, cover it either with glaze or with raspings, and garnish it with aspic jelly and picked parsley.
Baked Ham.-Prepare the ham as above, and let it simmer slowly for an hour in plain water. Then put it in a large baking-dish, with Mirepoix of wine and a little stock. Cover it over with oiled paper, and that again with a plain flour-and-water paste as for a meat pie. Put it in a slow oven to bake for three or four hours, according to size, and adding moisture if need be. Finish as before. Roast Ham. Soak the ham, cleanse it, trim it, and simmer it for an hour slowly in plain water. Then let it soak for twenty-four hours in a Mirepoix of red wine, turning it occasionally. It is afterwards to be removed from the Mirepoix and wrapt up like a haunch of venison first with oiled paper, then with water paste, then with another wrapping of paper tied with a string. Put it into a cradle-spit, and with much basting roast it for three or four hours, according to size, before a moderate fire. Finish the ham as before, and serve it with a boatful of gravy made of the Mirepoix liquor which has been used in basting it.
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