Baked Ham

Never bake a ham under a year old. Rub the ham thoroughly and put to soak in cold water for 24 hours. Then cover with cold water in a boiler. When it begins to boil, set on back of stove and boil slowly till the bone is loose. (Twenty minutes to a pound is about the length of time required.) Then remove from stove and let stand in boiler till it is cool, over night or half a day. Put in a baking-pan and remove the skin and extra fat, being careful to keep the shape. Make a stiff batter of flour and water and cover the top. Set it in the oven and bake slowly for 2 hours. Then remove batter and with a knife make slight incisions all over the ham and sprinkle first with brown sugar, about 1 tablespoonful, then sprinkle thoroughly with black pepper. Make a dressing of grated bread or crackers, a little onion chopped fine, 1 tablespoon butter, pepper, salt, and mix with 1 egg and a little water. Cover the top with this dressing and put in oven to brown. Serve cold.

Col. Wm. Rhodes Estill's Recipe For Curing Hams

Kill your hogs when the wind is from the northwest. The night before you salt the meat take a string of red pepper and make a strong tea. (Let it remain on the stove over night.) Put in the tea

2 heaping tablespoons of saltpetre to every 2 gallons. Take this strong tea and pour on the salt. Salt the meat lightly the first time to run off the blood. Let the meat lie packed 3 days - longer, if the weather is very cold. Then overhaul the meat and put 1 teaspoon of pulverized saltpetre on the flesh side of each ham and rub in well. Then rub with molasses mixed with salt. Pack close for 10 days. After this overhaul again, rubbing each piece, and pack close again. Hang the meat in

3 weeks from the time the hogs were killed. Before hanging, wash each piece in warm water, and while wet roll in hickory ashes. Then smoke with green hickory wood, and tie up in cotton bags in February.

Ham Cooked In Wine

Mrs. Henry C. Buckner

Scrub well and soak an old ham in plenty of water for 48 hours. Weigh ham and allow 1/2 hour for each pound, place in large ham boiler and fill with cold water; let simmer (not boil) gently the allotted time. When half the time is up, pour off the water; fill again with fresh boiling water, into which put 1/2 cup of vinegar, a bay leaf and a few cloves, and finish cooking. Let the ham remain in the water until cool. Then remove the skin. Mix 2 tablespoonfuls of "Coleman's Mustard" with vinegar, spread over the ham, brush with the yolk of an egg. Sprinkle with bread-crumbs and sugar, pin on the fat side with cloves and a few raisins.

With a sharp knife make incisions all through the ham, holding back the openings and pouring in 1/2 pint of sherry. Place in the oven for 1/2 hour, basting every 5 minutes. Do not cut until perfectly cold.

Kentucky Baked Ham

E. D. P

Take a good magnolia ham 1 or 2 years old and let it soak 36 hours. Make a stiff dough of flour and water and envelop the ham and put in a baking-pan. Add enough water to keep from stick-ing. Baste frequently and cook till thoroughly done, or till the hock can be removed - 5 or 6 hours. When done, skin it and make an icing of brown sugar and yolk of 1 egg, and cover top and grate bread-crumbs over. Put in oven and brown.

Sugar-Cured Hams

Mrs. Cassius M. Clay

Let the hams lie in dry salt for 4 weeks after the killing. Then hang them up in the smoke-house and smoke them with dry hickory chips till they are a pretty light brown. Then rub them thoroughly with a pomatum made of New Orleans molasses, black and red pepper, using about 3 times as much black pepper as red. Mix the molasses and pepper in a large dish-pan, and if they do not mix easily, warm them by setting the pan on the stove. When it is well mixed, have a man hold the ham by the hock with one hand, and with the other rub the mixture well into the ham on both sides. Make good strong sacks and tie each ham and hang up with the hock down, as the ingredients will be absorbed more readily.

They will be ready for use in about 8 or 10 months.

Hams a year old are better than older hams, as they get too dry and strong when kept too long. In cooking the ham a handful of cloves dropped in the water while boiling gives it a rich flavor.