Ham is one of the smoked meats. A leg of ham makes an excellent dinner, and the left-over pieces can be used to the very last scrap.

Soak the ham overnight, trim, wash off, and put to soak again. Mrs. Allen always soaks hers two nights and a day. In the morning put it in a kettle of cold water, heat it slowly, and let it boil about 5 hours. A knitting needle is a good thing to test it with. When it is done, skim it, put it back in the kettle, and let it stand until cold. If you want to serve it hot, take it from the kettle, put it in a roasting pan, and let it bake until the fat begins to cook. Sprinkle it all over with fine cracker crumbs or flour, and bake it until the crust is brown.

Cooking fresh meat. The flavors to be used with meat are a very important part of meat cookery, especially with tough meats. Dried herbs help to make meat dishes savory. Onions, carrots, turnips, celery, cabbage, in small portions, give a fine flavor. Spices, such as cloves, mustard, or even nutmeg, used in small quantities, also add to the savoriness of cooked meat; a little acid like lemon juice, or currant jelly, put into a soup, or stirred into a gravy, helps very much.