With bacon and beans, serve up whole potatos boiled and peeled—and in the country, where cream is plenty, they boil some with butter, and pour it over the potatos, touching each one with pepper.
BROILED HAM OR BACON.—
Wash and trim a nice piece of bacon; soak it all night, or for several hours, in cold water. In the morning scald it with boiling water. Let it lie till cool, then throw away the water, and scald it again. Cut it into thin slices, very smooth and even; the rind being previously pared off. Curl up the slices, rolling them round, and securing them with wooden skewers. Broil them on a gridiron, or bake them in a Dutch oven. If cut properly thin, they will cook in a quarter of an hour. They must not be allowed to burn or blacken. Before you send them to table, take out the skewers. They may be cooked in flat slices, without curling, but they must be cut always very thin. Slice some hard-boiled eggs, and lay them on the meat. Season with black pepper.
Cold boiled ham cooked as above, will require no soaking, and can be speedily prepared for a breakfast dish. Lay sprigs of parsley on the ham.
Serve up with them mashed potatos made into balls, or thick flat cakes, and browned on the surface with a red-hot shovel.
STEWED HAM.—
Cut some thin slices of cold boiled ham. Season them slightly with pepper. No salt. Lay them in a stew pan with plenty of green peas or lima beans, or else cauliflowers, or young summer cabbage, quartered, and the thick stalk omitted. Add a piece of fresh butter, or a very little lard. Put in just water enough to keep the things from burning. When the vegetables are quite done, add a beaten egg or two, and in five minutes, take up the stew and send it to table.