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Fried Eggs, Smith
Cut from a round, raw, lean ham twelve thin, even slices, trim off skin all around, then place in frying pan one beside another with a tablespoon melted butter and briskly fry for a minute on each side. Remove, place one slice in a lightly buttered small frying pan and sprinkle over ham a very little freshly chopped parsley. Carefully crack two fresh eggs on slice of ham, season with a light saltspoon salt and light half saltspoon white pepper. Sprinkle a very little more chopped parsley over eggs, cover eggs with another slice of the ham, then set in a brisk oven for five minutes, remove and glide them on a hot dish. Prepare five other portions in a similar way. When all on dish decorate with a little parsley greens and serve.
N.B. To shorten preparation of eggs use two or three small pans at same time.
A six-portion egg dish built on ham as both pan and lid. The technique is sound; only the vocabulary and the equipment assumptions need translating.
- "Raw ham" means uncooked, not cured-and-ready"Raw ham" means uncooked, not cooked-and-ready -- the recipe wants ham that has not been boiled or baked; whether Filippini meant fresh (uncured) leg of pork or a cured but uncooked ham is not stated. Either way, thin slices of uncooked pork want to reach 145F, so check that the meat is cooked through rather than relying on the clock. If you substitute a cured, fully cooked ham, the frying step becomes browning only.
- Brisk ovenRoughly 400-425F; the book gives no figures. The five minutes is mostly for setting the whites.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon, so a "light saltspoon" of salt is a scant 1/4 teaspoon per portion and the pepper about an eighth. That is a generous hand for two eggs; taste as you go.
- Small frying pan means oven-safeThe N.B. about using two or three pans at once shows the kitchen had several small pans to hand. Use small cast-iron skillets, blini pans, or individual gratin dishes wide enough to hold a ham slice flat. Anything with a plastic or soldered handle will not survive a hot oven.
- QuantitiesTwelve slices and two eggs per portion means twelve eggs and about 1 to 1 1/4 lb of ham for six servings, two slices of ham and two eggs each.
- Doneness of the eggsFive minutes under a ham lid gives set whites and soft yolks. Because the top slice hides the eggs, judge by lifting a corner rather than by appearance from above; another minute or two firms the yolks if that is wanted.
- Getting them out whole"Glide them on a hot dish" is the hinge. Butter the pan properly and loosen the whole ham-egg-ham sandwich around the edge with a thin spatula before tipping it out, or it will tear at the yolk.
- Working in batchesThe note about using two or three pans at once is not optional if you want all six to arrive hot. Fry all the ham first, hold it warm, then assemble and bake in two rounds.
Filippini's International Cook Book (1906) came out of long service in the Delmonico's kitchens in New York, and it carries hundreds of egg dishes distinguished only by a garnish and a proper name. Dishes were often titled after regular patrons, visiting dignitaries or staff, though nothing ties the name "Smith" to any particular person - the surname is a label for a particular treatment, here ham above and below, rather than a claim about any person's cooking. The construction also reflects a restaurant kitchen with a battery of small pans and a hot oven always going: individual portions cooked to order, unmoulded, and sent out garnished with parsley. Fresh ham, meaning the uncured leg, was a far more familiar butcher's cut then than now.