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Boiled Ham

Mrs. C. Waggoner.

Take a ham weighing about eight or ten pounds; soak it for twelve or twenty-four hours in cold water; then cover it with boiling water, add one pint of vinegar, two or three bay-leaves, a little bunch of thyme and parsley, (the dried and sifted will do, or even the seeds of parsley may be used, if the fresh cannot be procured); boil very slowly two hours and a half, take it out, skim it, remove all the fat, except a layer half an inch thick; cut off with a sharp knife all the black-looking outside; put the ham into your dripping pan, fat side uppermost, grate bread crust over it and sprinkle a teaspoon of powdered sugar over it; put it in the oven for half an hour, until it is a beautiful brown. Eat cold; cut the nicest portion in slices; the ragged parts and odds and ends can be chopped fine and used for sandwiches; or, by adding three eggs to one pint of chopped ham, and frying brown, you have a delicious omelette for breakfast or lunch. The bones should be put in a soup-kettle, the rind and fat should be rendered and strained for frying potatoes and crullers. Ham cooked in this way will go much farther than when cooked in the ordinary manner.