SC - Apecian Ham--Pernam

[LHG, JRG]

> Next-
> well, if rob manages to bag some nice squirrels, dormice
> farci?
> margali



margali, 

I have made the Pernam recipe in the past, and had very little trouble.

I think you have to look at 5 things: 
1)Ham means HAM, in other words cured and smoked pork leg meat, not fresh
pork meat. The romans brought the "ham en croute" idea to britain, where it
survives to this day, so I think I'm dead-on here in suggesting you get
preserved ham, not "fresh" ham, for an Apecian recipe specifying ham.  
2)Braise means to cook with a small amount of liquid. Boiled ham is one
thing and Braised ham another. One cooks with aromatic steam, and bottom
liquid and heat (braise), the other cooks with hot water (making the ham an
ineffective support for later baking, as the connective tissues have
disintegrated). 
3)The figs' natural sugar gets a sort of caramelization thing going there
(be careful of scorching!), and the thick liquid is your sauce (I added
lemon juice rather than the garum you added---it needs something!). 
4) Try a hot-water crust rather than a pie crust. I firmly believe that the
hot-water crust is a descendant of  excessively thick pottage, and that's
why we cannot understand, modernly, how pie crust is supposed to stand on
it's own. When you think of it as a pottage extension you should not have
too much trouble dumping in the hot liquid and melted fat to the flour. 
Let it cool slightly before working and it will react like
playdough.....you can get creative! 
5) This dish is supposed to resemble a baked ham when finished, at least
somewhat. Think of it as  roman double-illusion food: "Oh, look, it's ham!
Noooo, wait, there's a crust, so it must be something else.......No, wait,
It's a Ham in fig sauce!" Those romans had no sense of comedy!

Those are my observations of the dish. I'm sorry I don't have the redaction
I did so very long ago. I remember it was well recieved, however.

Hope that helps, at least a little bit.

Aoife



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