The Epicure's Almanac or Diary of Good Living
February 20th : HAM EXTRACT
Cut away, from an undressed ham, all the skin and fat, then take the meat from the bone ; put the latter into a large saucepan, having plenty of water ; and add a couple of large carrots, and three onions, cut into slices, a handful of sweet basil and parsley, two or three cloves, and a table-spoonful of mushroom powder ; let this stand over the stove for an hour, then take out the bone, and put in the meat.
Set the saucepan, well covered, down on a slow fire, for a couple of hours : stir the ingredients well together ; taste the flavour, and judge of the thickness. It must stew till the liquor, when cold, is in a good stiff jelly, previously having been run through a sieve, to clear it from the vegetables and meat.
A table-spoonful of this extract is quite sufficient to flavour a tureenful of winter pea or carrot soup, and a tea-spoonful in melted butter makes an admirable sauce for a roast fowl.