Ham Canapes
Mince and mash to a smooth paste half a pound of cold boiled ham, add two tablespoonfuls of currant jelly, one tablespoon of soft butter, and a half a teaspoon of curry powder or half this amount of paprika if the latter be preferred. Spread this paste on round pieces of toast and garnish with chopped, cooked eggs, whites and yolks separate, minced pickles, green peppers, and olives.
A potted-ham spread of the sort that turned Sunday's leftover joint into a party dish. The proportions are sound; only the equipment and a few assumptions need updating.
- Half a pound of hamRoughly 8 oz / 225 g of cooked ham off the bone; with the butter and jelly it makes enough paste for a couple of dozen small rounds, depending on how thickly it is spread. Lean boiled ham works best; a very salty country ham will overwhelm the jelly.
- Mince and mashThe original assumes a hand mincer and a bowl. A food processor does it in twenty seconds, but pulse rather than run it continuously or the fat emulsifies and the paste turns pasty and grey. Chop the ham coarsely first.
- Soft butterGenuinely soft, at room temperature for an hour. Cold butter will not bind, and melted butter will separate as the paste chills.
- Currant jellyRed currant jelly, not black currant preserve and not jam. It is there for tartness and gloss as much as sweetness. Redcurrant jelly sold for lamb is exactly the right thing.
- Curry powderCurry powders of the period varied a good deal, and many were milder than the jars sold now. Start with a quarter teaspoon, taste, and add the rest if it needs it.
- The toast roundsCut rounds from thin-sliced bread with a cutter, then toast them, rather than toasting first and cutting after. Untoasted bread goes soggy under this paste within the hour.
- Chopped cooked eggsHard-boiled, whites and yolks kept separate so the two colours stay distinct. The recipe calls for them chopped; pressing them through a sieve instead gives a finer finish.
- Assembly and holdingSpread and garnish no more than an hour ahead and keep covered in the refrigerator. The paste itself keeps three or four days sealed.
Canapés arrived in American entertaining books around the turn of the twentieth century as the small, hand-held opening to a meal, distinct from the sandwich proper by being open-faced and built on a toasted or fried base — the French word is conventionally explained as meaning a couch, the bread being the seat for whatever sits on it. This one belongs to the long tradition of potted meats, in which cooked meat is pounded with butter into a paste that both preserves it and stretches it, and it shows the period's fondness for the sweet-and-savoury pairing of ham with currant jelly, a combination also served with cold tongue and game. The dash of paprika is a small marker of date: it was a fashionable seasoning in Anglo-American cookery of the 1900s and 1910s, used less for heat than for a note of the exotic and for the colour.