To Boil Ham.
If it is quite salt, let it soak twenty-four hours. Cut off the end of the knuckle-bone; put it into a pot with cold water at the back of the range to simmer slowly for eight hours; then take it off the fire, and let it remain in the water until nearly cold; then peel off the skin carefully, make spots at uniform distances with pepper, and wind fringed paper around the bone. Mrs. Lestlie boils her hams with a bed of hay in the bottom of the pot. Some sprinkle grated bread or crackers over the ham when trimmed, and brown it in the oven; others brush it thickly over with glaze. However well cooked, it would be utterly ruined if it were not cut into thin, neat slices for eating.
Ham and Eggs.
The ham, cut into thin slices, can be broiled or sautéd. If broiled, spread over a little butter when cooked. The eggs can be fried; but they are more wholesome poached in salted water. In both cases they should be carefully cooked, neatly trimmed, and an egg served on each slice of ham.
To Fry or Sauté Ham.
The ham should be cut into thin, neat slices, and sautéd only for a minute in a hot sauté pan. If it is much more than thoroughly heated, it will become tough and dry.
Pork Fried in Batter, or Egged and Bread-crumbed.
Roll very thin slices of breakfast bacon or fat pork in fritter batter, or egg and bread-crumb them, and fry them in boiling lard. Serve on toast or fried mush as a dish by itself, or as a garnish for beefsteak, fried chickens, breaded chops, etc.
Mrs. Trowbridge’s Breakfast-bacon Dish.
Soak slices of bacon or pork in milk for fifteen minutes; then dip them into flour, and fry them in the sauté pan. When done, sauté some slices of potato in the same hot fat, and serve them in the centre of a hot dish, with a circle of the slices of pork around them.