Ham and Eggs
Have the slice of ham cut as thin as possible; place it in a heated pan and fry until it is slightly browned on both sides. Lift out the ham; break the eggs into the pan; season and let them fry until the whites are set. Remove them with a caketurner; place over the ham and serve, garnished with parsley.
A method rather than a formula: no quantities are given, and the order of operations is the whole point. Fry the ham first, then use its rendered fat for the eggs.
- The hingeThe eggs cook in the fat and fond left by the ham, which is where all the flavour comes from. Do not wipe the pan, and do not add butter unless the ham was unusually lean.
- "As thin as possible"In practice a thin breakfast slice, perhaps around 1/8 inch, though no thickness is given. A dry-cured country ham cut that thin browns in a minute or two per side; a thick modern steak will toughen before it colours.
- Which hamThe recipe asks only that the slice be browned slightly on both sides, which suits a thin cured slice rather than a thick raw one. Much supermarket ham today is already fully cooked and wet-cured, so it needs only warming and light browning -- and will render less fat.
- Salt"Season" applies to the eggs, and cured ham is salty enough that the pan fat is too. Pepper them, taste before salting.
- Doneness"Until the whites are set" leaves the yolks soft, which is the intent. Cover the pan for the last thirty seconds if the whites near the yolk are still slack.
- HeatMedium, not high. A pan hot enough to brown ham quickly will blister and frill the egg whites once the meat comes out; pull it down before the eggs go in.
- CaketurnerA thin flat spatula. A broad, thin blade is what you want for lifting a whole fried egg intact.
- YieldNo quantities are given: a slice of ham with eggs (plural) to suit, plated ham first, eggs on top, as written.
Ham and eggs is one of those dishes too ordinary to need a recipe, which is part of what makes its appearance in an instructional cook book of this kind interesting: books written for teaching purposes tended to set out even the things everyone already thought they knew. The pairing suited a farm household, where a cured hog hung in the smokehouse and hens laid close to the kitchen door, making a hot cooked breakfast possible without a trip to a shop. Frying the ham first and the eggs in its fat is the thriftier single-skillet logic, and the parsley garnish shows that even a plain breakfast plate was expected to be presentable.