Baked Ham
1 ham Brown sugar Soft bread-crums 1 teaspoon mustard Whole cloves Boil the ham whole, and skin it. Cut off some of the superfluous fat. Mix brown sugar and soft bread-crums, in the proportion of four parts sugar to one of crums, add one teaspoon mustard, and spread the mixture over the ham. Insert cloves about one inch apart, making a diamond pattern. Bake one-half hour, or until well glazed.
A two-stage method typical of the period: the ham is simmered until tender, then glazed briefly in the oven. The instruction that matters most is the boiling, which the recipe leaves entirely to your judgment.
- "Boil the ham whole"This means a bare simmer, not a rolling boil, in a pot large enough to cover the ham with water. Reckon roughly 20-25 minutes per pound for a bone-in ham, until the internal temperature reaches 145-150F and the bone feels loose. A hard boil toughens and shreds the outer meat.
- Hams have changedIn 1930 a whole ham was dry-salted or brined and genuinely needed the long simmer to cook through and to draw out salt. Most supermarket hams today are wet-cured and sold fully cooked, so the boiling step is redundant; a cooked ham needs only warming through and the glazing stage. An uncooked cured ham -- a country ham or the like -- is the one this recipe was written for.
- Oven heatThe recipe gives none. For the glaze, something in the range of about 375-425F suits the half hour; the lower end is safer for a sugar-and-crumb crust. Watch the last ten minutes closely, since the crust can go from glazed to scorched quickly.
- The glaze proportionFour parts brown sugar to one part soft breadcrumbs by volume, plus the mustard. Soft crumbs mean fresh bread rubbed to crumbs, not dried or toasted; they absorb fat and hold the sugar in place on a sloping surface. About a cup of sugar to a quarter cup of crumbs coats an average ham.
- Skinning while warmThe rind peels away cleanly while the ham is still hot from the pot and resists once cold. Leave a quarter inch of fat behind: it is what the glaze clings to. Score it in diamonds before setting the cloves so the pattern lines up.
- ClovesWhole cloves an inch apart is dense studding by modern taste and gives a strongly medicinal edge. Two or three inches apart is plenty for most palates. Remove them before carving.
- Resting and yieldRest 20 minutes before slicing so the juices settle. A whole bone-in ham of 12-16 lb will feed a large table -- twenty or more, depending how generously you carve -- with leftovers; save the bone and the cooking liquid for beans or split-pea soup.