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COUNTRY HAM AND RED-EYE GRAVY

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

I didn’t taste country ham or red-eye gravy until the summer that I was ten. My family and I were driving north to visit my Ohio grandmother and after overnighting at a tourist court in the Virginia Blue Ridge, we stopped at a little mom-and-pop café-cum-gas-station for breakfast. This was my first true southern country breakfast and I was thrilled. Not so my mother, father, and brother, all of whom thought the country ham too salty and too tough. And what was it with the coffee gravy? When I asked my parents why the red-eye gravy had such a funny name, they hadn’t a clue. Nor to this day have I found a surefire answer. Some say that when the ham is done and the skillet deglazed, the browned bits floating to the top resemble red eyes. I personally favor a theory suggested by John Egerton in Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History (1987). Apocryphal or not, it credits Andrew Jackson with inadvertently coming up with the name. To quote Egerton: “[Jackson] reportedly instructed a whiskey-drinking cook of his to bring him some ham with gravy ‘as red as your eyes’.”

Although the Southerners I know all make their red-eye with black coffee, Egerton prefers water, explaining that if the country ham is properly cured and properly smoked, the gravy doesn’t need coffee to boost its flavor. He has a point. Still, for me the best red-eye does contain black coffee and that’s the recipe I give here. Note: Many southern supermarkets sell prepackaged “Country Ham Wafer Thins,” slices of salt-cured, hickory-smoked country ham about six inches long, two and a half inches wide, and a fourth of an inch thick. Each weighs just shy of an ounce and two slices per person is about right. Tip: Most country ham is fat enough to lubricate the skillet; if not, heat a little vegetable oil or bacon drippings in the skillet before adding the ham.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil or bacon drippings (see Tip above)

8 thin slices country ham (about 8 ounces) (see Note above)

½ cup warm black coffee

1. If the ham is lean, heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy skillet over moderately high heat for about a minute before adding the ham. If not, add the ham directly to the hot skillet. Cook the ham for about 2 minutes on each side or until richly browned; transfer to paper toweling to drain.

2. Pour the coffee into the skillet and simmer for about 2 minutes, scraping up the browned bits on the skillet bottom. Do not allow to boil; the gravy will turn bitter.

3. To serve, arrange the country ham on heated plates and accompany with grits and/or freshly baked biscuits. Pass the red-eye gravy separately. Some Southerners spoon the red-eye over their grits (and/or biscuits), some ladle it over their ham, and some slosh it over everything. There’s no right or wrong.

MUSTARD-GLAZED HAM LOAF

MAKES 6 TO 8 SERVINGS

Meat loaves, especially ham loaves, have always been popular below the Mason-Dixon because they’re versatile, they’re filling, and they offer every opportunity to recycle leftovers. This one of mine is equally good hot or cold. It is delicious “straight up,” but I like it even better topped with the Sour Cream–Dill Sauce that follows. Note: Though supermarkets now sell ground raw pork, it’s sometimes impossible to buy ground ham, but that’s not a problem if you own a food processor. Cut the ham into 1-inch cubes, removing excess fat and connective tissue as you go, then pulse in batches until moderately finely ground. If you have no processor, I’m afraid you’ll have to feed the ham through a meat grinder.

1 pound moderately finely ground smoked ham

¾ pound moderately finely ground pork

1½ cups soft white bread crumbs, coarsely crumbled stale corn bread, or leftover cooked rice

¾ cup fresh orange juice or chicken broth or a combination of the two

½ cup mustard pickle relish

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

2 large eggs

¼ cup coarsely chopped parsley

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon