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Ham Canapes No. 2
Cut bread in rounds one-fourth inch thick. Saute in butter; spread with finely chopped ham mixed to a paste with a little melted butter and seasoned. Sprinkle top with finely chopped hard-boiled eggs.
A canapé of the 1900s buffet type: fried bread rounds, potted ham, chopped egg. It comes together in minutes once the components are ready, and the only real risk is soggy or greasy bases.
- Cutting the roundsA 1½–2 inch plain cutter or a small glass gives the right size — two bites, no more. Day-old firm white bread cuts cleaner than fresh and absorbs less butter.
- "Saute in butter"Clarified butter or a butter-and-oil mix over medium heat gives the most control; whole butter alone browns quickly and needs watching. Drain on paper and cool before spreading, or the paste softens and slides.
- The ham pasteThis is potted ham in miniature. A food processor does in seconds what the original expected of a knife and a bowl; pulse rather than purée so a little texture remains, and add melted butter a teaspoon at a time until it just holds together.
- SeasoningThe book says only "seasoned" and leaves it at that. Cured ham varies in salt, so taste first, then lean on mustard, cayenne, or a scrape of mace rather than more salt.
- Hard-boiled eggsTen to twelve minutes at a bare simmer, then straight into cold water, keeps the yolks yellow rather than grey-green. Push them through a coarse sieve for the fine, even crumb this garnish wants.
- Yield and timingThe recipe gives no quantities. As a rough guide, a standard loaf will yield around twenty rounds, with perhaps half a pound of ham and a couple of eggs to cover them. Assemble close to serving — the bases lose their crispness once the paste is on.
Canapé is the French word for a couch or sofa, and the culinary sense is conventionally explained as the bread being the seat for whatever sits on it. Canapés were established in American entertaining by the turn of the century, and in the sandwich books of the 1900s they were commonly treated as a branch of sandwich-making rather than of haute cuisine, which is why one appears here at all. The ham paste belongs to the tradition of potted meats, a British preservation method in which cooked meat was pounded with butter and sealed under more butter; in domestic use such as this the pounding survives without the sealing, as a way of turning the last of a cooked ham into something that looks deliberate on a tray.