ring, that it requires still more care.

Ham is generally not half-soaked; as salt as brine, and hard as flint;
and it would puzzle the stomach of an ostrich to digest it.

MEM.--The salt, seasoning, and smoke, which preserve it before it is
eaten, prevent its solution after; and unless it be very long and very
gently stewed, the strongest stomach will have a tough job to extract
any nourishment from it. If it is a very dry Westphalia ham, it must be
soaked, according to its age and thickness, from 12 to 24 hours; for a
green Yorkshire or Westmoreland ham, from four to eight hours will be
sufficient. Lukewarm water will soften it much sooner than cold, when
sufficiently soaked, trim it nicely on the underside, and pare off all
the rusty and smoked parts till it looks delicately clean.

lb. oz.
A ham weighed before it was soaked 13
After 12 4
Boiled 13 4
Trimmed for table 10 12

Give it plenty of water-room, and put it in while the water is cold; let
it heat very gradually, and let it be on the fire an hour and a half
before it comes to a boil; let it be well skimmed, and keep it simmering
very gently: a middling-sized ham of fifteen pounds will be done enough
in about four or five hours, according to its thickness.

If not to be cut till cold, it will cut the shorter and tenderer for
being boiled about half an hour longer. In a very small family, where a
ham will last a week or ten days, it is best economy not to cut it till
it is cold, it will be infinitely more juicy.

Pull off the skin carefully, and preserve it as whole as possible; it
will form an excellent covering to keep the ham moist; when you have
removed the skin, rub some bread raspings through a hair-sieve, or grate
a crust of bread; put it into the perforated cover of the dredging-box,
and shake it over it, or glaze it; trim the knuckle with a fringe of cut
writing-paper. You may garnish with spinage or turnips, &c.

_Obs._ To pot ham (No. 509), is a much more useful and economical way of
disposing of the remains of the joint, than making essence of it (No.
352). To make soup of the liquor it is boiled in, see N.B. to No. 555.

_Tongue._--(No. 15.)

A tongue is so hard, whether prepared by drying or pickling, that it
requires much more cooking than a ham; nothing of its weight takes so
long to dress it properly.

A