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Ham Loaf
1/4 pound lean ham 2 tablespoons flour 2 cups milk 1/4 pound grated cheese 3 eggs Salt and pepper Cook the ham and chop it fine. Mix the flour with the milk and cook for a few minutes; then add the ham, cheese, the egg-yolks slightly beaten, and the stiffly beaten egg-whites. Season with salt and pepper, pour into a mold, set the mold in a pan of hot water and bake in a slow oven until firm. This may be served with or without a thin white sauce.
A soufflé-like baked custard loaf, closer to a crustless quiche than to the pressed ground-meat ham loaf familiar in American cooking. The whole success of it is the water bath and a genuinely low oven.
- Slow ovenRead this as 300-325F. Higher heat curdles the egg and milk and the loaf weeps, whatever the water bath does.
- Bain-marieSet the buttered mold in a pan with hot water reaching halfway up its sides. A 1-quart mold or 8x4-inch loaf pan takes roughly 45 to 60 minutes; it is done when a knife slid into the center comes out clean and the middle no longer wobbles as a mass.
- The flour and milkNo fat is specified, so this is a plain milk-and-flour binding rather than a roux. Whisk the flour into a little cold milk to a smooth slurry first, then add the rest and cook until it thickens, or it will lump. Let it cool below scalding before the yolks go in.
- Folding the whitesBeat the whites stiff but not dry and fold them in last, off the heat, with a light hand. They give the loaf its lift; stirred in, they simply disappear and you get a dense custard.
- Ham quantityA quarter pound is small by modern habit and the dish reads as mild. "Cook the ham" suggests a piece that is not already cooked; ordinary cooked ham off the deli counter needs only chopping.
- CheeseA quarter pound grated is about 1 cup packed. Gruyere or a firm Swiss melts more smoothly into the custard than cheddar.
- SaltSeason after the ham and cheese are in and taste the raw mixture. Between cured ham and aged cheese the dish is often salty enough without more.
- YieldServes four as a light main course, six as a first course. Let it stand 10 minutes before unmolding or it will slump.