La Cuisine HAM — Let's Soliloquise

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

La Cuisine HAM — Let's Soliloquise

THE old way to prepare a Ham was to soak it overnight, then boil it before it went into the oven with the spices and brown sugar. The new way is much simpler and the results are sure, because to-day's ham . has been scientifically cured, eliminating the necessity of soaking out excess salt. To-day's ham has a superior flavour and is much more tender than grandmother thought it could ever be. Some hams coime ready/cooked and need only I reheating. Some are tinned, with bone and excess fat removed. Others have been processed to make them specially tender, and all of them are ready to bake with no preliminaries. The Parisians are partial to the tinned hams, for they may be prepared in less than an hour, they are tender and sweet, and there's no waste in .them. To prepare a tinned ham for the oven is "simple. One merely slashes the fat side in a diamond pattern, ruba tits

ham with brown sugar if desired, / and bakes it for 45 minutes or so in a moderate oven. No temperature above 350 degrees is suitable for any kind of ham, or for any other meat, for that matter. A whole ham, if it is cooked, needs only to be heated through in a moderate oven. An uncooked ham will take longer, somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes to the pound. The rind usually is removed after the ham has baked for a while, after which the fat may be slashed and any garnish added. Two Treatments of Ham There are two favourite ways of treating ham. The first method is for a whole ham, the second for a slice: FESTIVE HAM: . Place the whole ham, rind left on, upon a rack in an open roasting pan. Bafke at 325 to 350 degrees, adding no water, allowing 25 minutes per pound. About 45 minutes before the calculated time for the completed baking, remove the ham from the oven and cut off. all the rind except the small collar anound the Ehank. Slash the fat across >th® top to make

a diamond pattern and cover the ham with a sauce of pineapple juice and honey, using one quart of fruit juice and two cups of honey for a ten-pound ham. Return to the oven to finish baking, and baste frequently with the sauce. The diamond shapes on the ham surface may be studded with halves of maraschino cherries for serving. This adds to the attractiveness of the ham. Grape juice, orange juice, or a combination of juices, may be used in this recipe in the same manner. Ham Baked n Cider Have ham sliced one and a half to two inches thick. Trim off most of the fat. Place slice in roasting pan, and cover with sweet cider. Add three or four whole cloves and one cup of seedless raisins. Bake in a moderate oven for about one and a half hours, omntil the ham is tender. Kemove to a hot platter and thicken cider in which ham was cooked with flour smoothed in cold water. Serve the cider sauce with the ham. Cinnamon apples may be arranged around the ham on the platter. They should be halved or alieed.