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Ham and Noodles
Boil one package of Fould's Broad Egg Noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Pour into a colander and let cold water run through them. Add 2 cups ground boiled or baked ham, and one-half cup milk mixed with one egg. Mix all well and bake in a hot oven about an hour or more. A good way to use leftover ham.
Mrs. R. M. Dillon.
A ham-and-noodle bake of the plainest kind, held together by a thin egg custard. Two things need attention: the size of the vanished noodle package and the length of the bake.
- The packageFould's broad egg noodles were sold in boxes of roughly 8 ounces, though package sizes varied and the original weight cannot be confirmed; 8 oz (about 4 cups dry) of wide egg noodles is a reasonable stand-in, giving roughly 4 cups cooked against 2 cups of ham.
- "Hot oven"In books of this period a hot oven is 400-425F. At that heat for the full hour the custard sets hard and the exposed noodles go to leather; 375F for 30 to 40 minutes, covered for the first 20, gives a set center without drying.
- The binder is thinHalf a cup of milk with one egg is barely enough to moisten this quantity of noodles and ham. A cup of milk with two eggs makes a custard that actually binds, and keeps the dish from baking dry.
- Rinsing the noodlesThe cold rinse is deliberate, not sloppiness: it stops the cooking and strips surface starch so the noodles stay separate in the custard rather than fusing. Drain them well or the extra water thins the egg mixture.
- Ground ham"Ground" here means run through a hand meat grinder, which gives a coarse, slightly fluffy texture. Short pulses in a food processor come close; do not run it to paste. Roughly a pound of cooked ham yields 2 cups.
- SeasoningNo salt is listed, presumably because boiled or baked ham is already salty. Taste the ham first, add pepper to taste, and hold back on salt until you have.
- Dish and finishButter a 2-quart baking dish. Buttered crumbs or grated cheese over the top is period-appropriate and solves the pale, flat surface the recipe otherwise gives you.
- YieldServes four to six as a luncheon dish with a salad or stewed tomatoes.
Foulds was a real name in the trade: the Foulds Milling Company ran a macaroni and noodle works in Libertyville, Illinois. Why this brand was named rather than another cannot be recovered, but community cookbooks of this period are full of such branded shorthand, partly out of loyalty and partly because a named package was a reliable unit of measure in kitchens without standard scales. The dish itself belongs to the broad American tradition of the leftover casserole, the noodle standing in for the older bread or rice binder, and if it stands under "Luncheon Dishes" that marks it as food for the midday meal or a church supper rather than dinner proper. Mrs. Dillon's closing line, "a good way to use leftover ham," is the whole argument for the recipe.