Meat, whether fresh or salted, smoked or dried, should always be put on the fire in cold water. Dried meats should be soaked before boiling. The delicacy of meat and fowls is preserved by carefully skimming while they are boiling.
STUFFED HAM
Smoked hams are much liked stuffed with spices and sweet herbs, which the only kind of stuffing a salt ham will admit, as bread, crackers or oysters would sour before the ham could be used. If you wish to stuff a ham, look at the recipe for “Aromatic Spices for seasoning Meat, Pies, etc.” Soak your ham all night, scrape it nicely, and boil it half an hour to make the skin tender; then take it from the pot, gash it all over, introduce as much of the pounded spices as the incisions will hold, and then close the skin over the gashes and boil in the same manner, with vegetables thrown in, as in recipe for boiled ham.
BAKED HAM
Soak and clean your ham, boil it with onions, cloves, parsley and sweet herbs until it is nearly done, then let it cool in its own liquor; when cold, pull off the skin and place the ham in the oven gate, with a little sugar and bread crumbs over it till it is brown. If it is to be eaten hot, serve with vegetables and some acid or piquant sauce; if cold, send up savory jelly, No. 21.
TO BOIL A HAM
Run a knife, or skewer, into the thickest part of the ham next the bone; if the knife comes out clean the ham is good, if it smells rank and smears the knife the ham is not good. Select your ham, then, according to this rule, and when good lay it in cold water; scrape and wash it carefully, and let it remain in the water all night. In the morning, when the water—enough to cover the ham—is nearly boiling lay the ham in, and keep the water in a simmer. When it has boiled about an hour throw in two carrots, four onions, two heads of celery, a sprig of parsley, two or three blades of mace and four cloves. If the ham is very salty, it is well to change the water before putting in the seasoning. To obtain tenderness and mellowness the ham must not be allowed to boil hard, only simmer. Too much heat hardens all meat, especially salt meat. When the ham is done set it off in its own water, let it cool in it; by this means it will retain its moisture. When cool take it out, skin it, and dredge sugar over it, set it in the oven till it browns, or hold a hot shovel over it.
DAUBE GLACEE OF BEEF, FOR COLD SUPPERS
Take a thick round of beef—from four to six inches is the best size—make holes in it and stuff them with salted pork or bacon; roll each piece, before it is drawn through the beef, in pepper, salt, sugar, and vinegar, with minced parsley, and a very little minced garlic. If the weather is cold it will be better to keep the meat till the next day before cooking it. Boil two calf’s feet or four pig’s feet until they drop to pieces; pick out the bones and strain the liquor; set it away to jelly, or put it on ice to make it jelly. The next morning, put one half the jelly in a large stew pan, then add the beef, and cover it with the remainder of the jelly. Paste the pan over very tight or cover it extremely well, so that none of the flavor can escape. Cook this about four hours; when done, take out, cover with the liquor, and set it aside till it is jellied. This is delicious to eat cold, for suppers and collations.
BOILED BRISKET OF BEEF, STUFFED