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Ham Mousse No. 1
2 cups cooked ham 1/2 cup thick cream sauce 2 eggs, well beaten 2 tablespoons sherry 1/16 teaspoon cayenne 1/4 teaspoon salt Grind the cooked ham (any ends or pieces will do) several times. Add it to the cream sauce, seasonings and beaten eggs, and beat until smooth. Grease a ring mold. (Garnish with cooked macaroni and peppers if desired.) Fill with ham mixture and cook in hot oven in hot water, uncovered, 25 minutes. Serve with creamed vegetables or chilled vegetable salad. Serves 6.
A baked ham custard set in a ring mold, of the sort that carried a 1930s luncheon table. The whole thing hinges on gentle, even heat: it is a custard, not a loaf, and it will weep and curdle if pushed hard.
- Oven heatA "hot oven" in books of this period means 400-425F. That is high for an egg custard even in a water bath; 350F is the safer setting for a smooth set, with the timing extended accordingly.
- The water bathSet the filled mold in a larger pan and pour in boiling water to come halfway up the sides. Uncovered is correct here, as the recipe says, but keep the water hot rather than letting it come to a rolling boil against the mold.
- Thick cream sauceThis is a heavy bechamel: about 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and 1/2 cup milk, cooked until it mounds on the spoon. Let it cool to lukewarm before the beaten eggs go in or they will scramble.
- Grinding the hamTwo cups of cooked ham is roughly 10 to 12 oz before grinding, depending on how coarsely it is cut. A food processor does the work of "several times" through a meat grinder, but pulse rather than run it, or the ham turns to paste and the mousse becomes rubbery.
- 1/16 teaspoon cayenneA scant pinch, roughly half of what a 1/8 teaspoon holds.
- SaltA quarter teaspoon assumes a mildly cured ham. Supermarket ham is considerably saltier now; taste the ground ham first and cut the salt if it is already well seasoned.
- Mold sizeA ring mold of about 4 to 5 cups capacity suits this quantity. Grease it thoroughly and, if you want it to unmold cleanly, let it stand 5 minutes out of the water before inverting.
- Testing for donenessTwenty-five minutes is a minimum. Judge it by feel: the center should be just set and a knife inserted there should come out clean, not milky.
- ServingSix portions as a light luncheon dish. The hollow center can be filled with the creamed vegetables or salad.
Ring molds and mousses of ground meat were a staple of the ladies' luncheon and the bridge party between the wars, when a dish that could be assembled ahead, baked, and turned out whole was worth more than one that needed carving. This recipe is frankly a thrift dish dressed for company: the instruction that "any ends or pieces will do" tells you it was written to use up the last of a baked ham, while the sherry, the cayenne and the macaroni-and-pepper garnish in the mold give it a geometric, decorative look. The word mousse here means only that eggs and a rich sauce lighten the meat; the cold, gelatine-set ham mousse of buffet cookery is a different preparation that shares the name.