No. 1789

Ham, Roasted on the Spit, Madeira Sauce, or Marinated and Roasted, White Wine Sauce

Jambon Roti a la Broche Sauce Madere, ou Marine Roti au Four a la Sauce au Vin Blanc

On the Spit.—Select a small raw unsmoked ham, remove the aitchbone, saw off the handle joint and suppress the rind and part of the fat, leaving only a layer half an inch in thickness; pare the ham into a round shape, then lay it in brine from two to eight days, and later when needed for use, wash it in plenty of cold water; wipe and envelop the lean parts in a large slice of fat pork; tie up the ham and roast it on the spit, basting it frequently with white wine; serve hot with a sauce-boat of Madeira sauce (No. 492).

Marinated and Roasted in the Oven--White Wine Sauce.—Prepare the ham the same as for the above, only instead of salting it, place it in a vessel to marinate for two days with white wine and a seasoning of salt, pepper, sliced onions, cloves, minced carrots, parsley leaves, thyme, bay leaf, a little sugar and sweet oil; turn the meat over every three hours. Wrap the ham up with its marinade in several sheets of strong paper and roast it in a moderate oven for three hours and a half. Thirty minutes before serving, unwrap and glaze the surface, strain the stock, remove its fat and thicken it with a little brown sauce (No. 414) and white wine; boil for half an hour remove the fat, dress the ham, have it nicely glazed and pour a little of the sauce under, while serving the remainder in a sauce-boat.

← No. 1788 Ham a la Leonard-Boiled Pork No. 1790 Ham, with Carrots, Stuffed Tomatoes or Mushr →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is roasting a fresh leg of pork here, not the pink cured ham of a modern supermarket, and the two methods he gives are quite different animals: a short brine and open spit-roasting, or a two-day wine marinade and a long enclosed roast in paper. A few of his terms and assumptions need translating.

"Raw unsmoked ham"This is a fresh ham — the uncured hind leg of the pig, sold today as fresh ham, pork leg roast, or pernil. Anything labelled simply "ham" at a supermarket is already brine-cured and often smoked, and will be far too salty for either treatment. Ask a butcher for a whole or half fresh leg, 8-12 lb for a "small" one.
Butchering termsThe aitchbone is the pelvic bone at the wide end; removing it lets you carve cleanly. The "handle joint" is the shank end, sawn off. Both jobs are easier asked of a butcher than done with a household saw.
Fat and rindLeaving half an inch of fat is exactly right for a long roast, and modern pork is leaner than 1894 pork, so err on the generous side. The large slice of fat pork tied over the lean is barding; unsmoked fatback or thin-sliced salt pork rinsed of its salt both work.
The brineNo proportions are given here, which is a real gap. Treat it as a flavor brine, not a cure: a standard 5-6 percent salt solution for two or three days is ample for a fresh leg, and the eight-day end of his range belongs to a colder, saltier era. Brine in the refrigerator at 38F or below, never on a counter.
"Moderate oven"Roughly 325-350F in modern terms; the book gives no figure. For the paper-wrapped version, three and a half hours is in the right neighborhood for a small leg, but cook to temperature rather than to the clock: pull at 145F at the center for sliceable meat, or push to 175-185F if you want it falling apart. Unwrap for the last thirty minutes as directed so the glaze can set.
Wrapping in paperSeveral sheets of strong paper is the nineteenth-century en papillote for large roasts — it traps the marinade as a steaming liquor. Heavy parchment tied with butcher's twine reproduces it; foil works but browns the surface less and will need the full uncovered half hour.
Sweet oilSimply olive oil, in the older grade language of the period. Use a plain, unassertive olive oil rather than a peppery finishing one.
The saucesNo. 492 Madeira sauce and No. 414 brown sauce are both built on Ranhofer's espagnole, a long-simmered brown veal stock sauce. A good reduced brown veal or pork stock, lightly thickened and finished with Madeira or the strained wine marinade, gets you there without the two-day mother sauce.
YieldA small fresh ham of 8-10 lb bone-in serves 10-14, and both versions carve better after twenty minutes' rest. The marinated version yields enough strained cooking liquor to make all the sauce you need.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its pork chapter shows how firmly the kitchen still stood in French practice while cooking American meat. In France, jambon ordinarily denoted the cured leg, with jambon frais specified for the fresh one — which is why Ranhofer has to spell out "raw unsmoked" — and roasting one à la broche — on the turning spit before an open fire — was the older and grander of the two methods, which is why Ranhofer offers the oven alternative in the same entry. The paper wrapping is a survival of a much older technique for large roasts, used before reliable oven thermostats to keep a long-cooking joint from drying and scorching. The wine marinade with onion, clove, carrot, thyme and bay is the standard French aromatic bath applied to butcher's meat, and the pinch of sugar in it points toward the glazed, lacquered surface that finishes the dish.