Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Ham, Burgundy, Mode of Pre- paring.— Soak and boil a ham as usual, but a trifle under the time generally allowed. Take it up, drain it, take off the skin, and trim it neatly. Put it into a deep baking-dish, the fat side uppermost, and pour over it some boiling sauce, made of a pint of good stock, three ounces of sugar, and a bottle of wine (Madeira is the kind generally preferred). Put the dish in a hot oven, until the gravy is considerably reduced, and the ham glazed to a bright brown colom-. Send good brown sauce and onion sauce to table with it. Time to boil, twenty minutes to the pound ; to bake, about half an hour. Probable cost of ham. Is. per pound. Ham, Choosing a. — In choosing a ham, look out for one ^vith a smooth skin, sweet smell, and with the flesh adlaering firmly to the bone. It is best to probe it with a sharp knife down the knuckle, and near the thigh-bone, and if, when the knife is withdrawn, the smeL. is fresh and savoury, and the blade clean, the ham is good; if the contrary is the case, it is bad. York hams are generally considered the best. Ham, Cured. — Do not let the pig be killed in either damp or frosty weather, and remember that if it is not fully twelve months old, the ham will not be good. Let the ham hang a day or two after it is cut up, sprinkle a httle salt ever it, and let it drain for anoth-er day. Eub over it very thoroughly a (quarter of a pound of saltpetre, two pounds of salt, and a pound of the very coarsest sugar. Lay it, rind downwards, in a dish, put the salt on the fleshy parts, baste it frequently with the brine which runs from it, and turn it every other day. It must remain for four weeks ; at the end <i)f that time drain it, and throw some bran over it. It is now ready to be either smoked or hung. If smoked, oak, green birch, or juniper, should be burnt under it ; pine sha\-ings would spoil the flavour. If it is to be hung, let it be in a cool place ; watch it carefully, and if any part should get rancid and yeUow, scrape it off, and rub the place with pepper, salt, and flour, mixed together in equal proportions. Three months should elapse before the ham is cut. If it is hung in a hot place, the ham will be hard and dry ; if in a very cold one, it vdll be a longer time before it is ready to cook. If hams, when hung, seem not likely to keep well, they should be put into the pickle again, and kept there till wanted, and used as soon as con- venient. If the brine should become slimy and disagreeable, it should be boiled, or, better still, a fresh pickle made. Probable cost of ham, Is. per pound. Ham, Cured (an easy way). — Take five ounces of salt, five ounces of basalt, an ounce and a half of black pepper, an ounce of salt- petre, and three-quarters of a pound of coarse sugar. Dry these ingredients before the fire, pound and mix them thoroughly, and rub the mixture well into the ham. Tarn and baste it every day for a month. Drain dry, and hang the ham in a cool, dry, airy place ; or, if conve- nient smoke it. Two or three hams can be cured in one tub, this proportion of pickling ingredients being put to each. The hams should change places every other day, from the top to the bottom. Probable cost of ham. Is. per pound. Sufficient for a ham weighing fourteen pounds.