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Ham Braise, Piquante Sauce
Saw off a four-pound piece from a tender raw ham; skin and neatly trim all around. Heat a tablespoon leaf lard in a medium saucepan, lay in the ham and lightly brown for five minutes on each side. Lift up the ham and place on a plate. Arrange a mirepoix at the bottom of the pan, and let brown for five minutes on the fire, occasionally mixing; then add the ham; moisten with a gill claret, one gill demi-glace and one-half gill tomato sauce. Season with two saltspoons white pepper. Cover the pan, let boil for five minutes, then place in the oven to bake for thirty-five minutes. Strain through a Chinese strainer into another saucepan; add six medium, vinegar pickles, finely minced, one tablespoon finely chopped capers, half teaspoon chopped parsley and a tablespoon vinegar; lightly mix, then boil for two minutes. Pour over the ham and serve.
A straightforward French braise from a Delmonico kitchen, written for cooks who already had demi-glace and tomato sauce standing by. The measurements are the main obstacle, along with one silent question about what kind of ham is meant.
- What "raw ham" means hereThe recipe does not say. It may mean a fresh, uncured leg of pork, or an uncooked cured ham; period usage covers both. If you use a green (fresh) leg, treat it as pork and take it to at least 145F internal; if you use an uncooked cured ham, the salt will carry the seasoning and you should cut back the added pepper.
- The timing is shortThirty-five minutes will not bring a four-pound solid piece of leg to temperature from cold. Expect 1 1/2 to 2 hours covered, and go by a thermometer rather than the clock. The published time suggests the original cooks were working with a partly cooked or cured piece.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so this is 1/2 cup claret, 1/2 cup demi-glace and 1/4 cup tomato sauce. A saltspoon is a scant 1/4 teaspoon, making two saltspoons of white pepper roughly 1/2 teaspoon.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given, and the recipe uses no oven term at all. As a practical matter a moderate oven, 325 to 350F, suits a covered braise of this size.
- MirepoixDiced carrot, onion and celery, often with a little bay and thyme; a cup or so of total vegetable is enough for one four-pound piece. Browning it in the ham fat for five minutes before the liquid goes in adds colour and depth, alongside the demi-glace.
- Demi-glace and leaf lardDemi-glace here is the reduced brown veal stock of a professional kitchen; a good jarred demi-glace or a strongly reduced beef stock works. Leaf lard is the mild fat from around the kidneys, and any neutral lard or oil will brown the meat as well.
- Chinese strainerA chinois, the conical fine-mesh strainer. A regular fine sieve does the job; press the vegetables lightly to get the body out of them, then discard the solids.
- The pickles"vinegar pickles" means sour pickles, not anything sweet; the recipe calls for six medium ones, finely minced. They and the capers go in at the very end and get only two minutes of boiling, which keeps the sauce sharp; longer cooking flattens it.
- YieldFour pounds of leg, sliced, serves six to eight with the sauce spooned over.
This is classical French cooking as it was practiced in New York's grand restaurants, set down by Alexander Filippini, long of Delmonico's. Sauce piquante is one of the standard brown sauce derivatives of the period: demi-glace sharpened with vinegar and studded with minced gherkins, capers and parsley, a formula codified in the French repertory and used with pork, tongue and leftover boiled meats because the acidity cuts richness. The braise itself, brown the meat, build a mirepoix under it, moisten with wine and stock, then finish the strained liquid into a sauce, is the standard method for a large piece of meat, and the vocabulary here (gill, saltspoon, Chinese strainer, leaf lard) belongs to a kitchen where sauce bases were made daily in quantity and a cook could reach for demi-glace as casually as a modern one reaches for a carton of stock.