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Ham Braise, Londonderry
Soak a three-pound piece ham in cold water for one and a half hours, drain and neatly trim. Place a mirepoix at the bottom of a braising pan, add two tablespoons good lard and gently brown for ten minutes, occasionally stirring meanwhile. Lay ham on top, pour in one gill port wine, two tablespoons brandy, two gills demi-glace, one gill tomato sauce and four tablespoons currant jelly. Cover pan, set in oven for two hours, being careful to baste once in a while with its own gravy. Remove, place ham on a large dish, boil sauce on range ten minutes, then strain it over ham and serve.
A straightforward wine-and-jelly braise for a cured ham, written for a kitchen that kept demi-glace on hand. The only real work is the sauce base; the ham itself is nearly self-managing.
- The gillOne gill is half a cup, four fluid ounces. So the braising liquid is 1/2 cup port, 1 cup demi-glace, 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 2 tablespoons brandy.
- Soak the ham, and mean itThe 90-minute cold soak is desalting, not softening. Modern supermarket hams are wet-cured and far less salty than the dry-cured pieces this book assumed; taste a sliver first, and if it is a mild commercial ham, cut the soak to 20-30 minutes or skip it entirely or the sauce will be thin-tasting rather than salvaged.
- MirepoixRoughly diced onion, carrot and celery in about a 2:1:1 ratio by weight — call it two cups total for a pan this size. The book expects it browned in fat first, which adds depth to the sauce; ten minutes over medium heat, until the vegetables take colour at the edges.
- Oven temperatureNo temperature is given. Two hours for a three-pound piece points to a moderate oven, 325-350F. The liquid should barely tremble, not boil, or the ham tightens.
- Demi-glaceA reduced brown veal stock with sauce espagnole, a standing preparation in professional kitchens of the period. Concentrated demi-glace base diluted per the jar works; so does one cup of strong unsalted brown stock reduced by half. Do not use a salted commercial stock — the ham brings plenty.
- Currant jellyRed currant jelly, the same thing served with game and mutton. Four tablespoons in roughly two cups of liquid makes a distinctly sweet-tart sauce; that is the point of the dish, but it is worth adding three tablespoons and correcting at the end.
- DonenessA commercially cured, fully cooked ham needs only to be heated through, around 140F at the centre. If working with a raw cured piece, take it to 145F and rest it. Two hours may overshoot a small three-pound piece — check at 75 minutes.
- Finishing the sauceTen minutes at a boil after the ham comes out reduces and clarifies; strain through a fine sieve and press the vegetables lightly. If it still tastes thin, reduce further rather than thickening it.
- YieldThree pounds of boneless ham serves six to eight as a main course, more if carved thin for a buffet.
The Londonderry name attaches to several late-Victorian and Edwardian hotel dishes, by tradition said to honour the Marquesses of Londonderry, part of the broader fashion for naming garnishes after grand names. The treatment itself is unmistakably Escoffier-era French service applied to a British ingredient: a cured ham braised in port and demi-glace, finished with red currant jelly, which is the classic English accompaniment to game folded into a French brown sauce. That combination of a national ingredient with a professional French method runs through The International Cook Book — the recipes gather dishes from many countries but almost all pass through the vocabulary of the hotel kitchen, which is why a home cook is casually expected to have demi-glace and tomato sauce already made.