Potted Ham

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean ham
• 6 oz lean roast veal
• 8 oz fresh butter
• 1 teaspoon freshly-pounded mace
• 0.5 large nutmeg, or 1 whole nutmeg
• 0.25 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Instructions

1. Soak the freshly cured ham for twelve hours.
2. Wipe the ham dry, trim it neatly, wrap it in coarse paste, and bake until very tender.
3. Remove the crust and rind when it comes from the oven and allow the ham to cool completely.
4. When perfectly cold, weigh the lean ham after carefully removing every morsel of skin and fibre.
5. Prepare the roast veal with equal care, removing all skin and fibre.
6. Mince the ham and veal very fine with an exceedingly sharp knife, cutting through the meat rather than tearing the fibre.
7. Place the minced meat into a large stone or marble mortar and pound it to the smoothest paste, adding the cold fresh butter by degrees.
8. When the mixture is three parts beaten, strew over it the freshly-pounded mace, grated nutmeg, and cayenne pepper, well mixed together.
9. Keep the meat often turned from the sides to the middle of the mortar so it may be seasoned equally throughout.
10. Continue pounding until perfectly smooth and uniform.
11. Press the potted meat into small potting-pans.
12. Pour clarified butter over the top—the butter should be less than milk-warm when added, never hot.
13. Store in a cool and dry place.