Perfect Fried Eggs with Ham (Part 2)

Post date: Sep 19, 2015 11:53:56 AM

--By Bombulina Tastyspoon--

The perfect fried ham to accompany your fried eggs…

Last week we showed you master Pointbeard 's recipe for the perfect fried eggs, now we'll take a closer look at the ham that should accompany this dish.

An amateur mistake is to prepare the ham and eggs in the same pan, it will either destroy your eggs or leave you with a flabby under-cooked piece of ham. If you wish to make the perfect Ereborian fried eggs and ham… GET TWO pans. Reason for this is that the eggs should be done on the smallest of cooking fires which is not at all how the ham should be done. On the other hand we can't wait for the eggs to be done to do the ham, or the eggs will have cooled, hence a second pan is absolutely required.

Timing is everything with this dish. Start with master Pointbeard's recipe for fried eggs first and when the white of the eggs slowly starts to turn white this is your signal to start with the ham. This way both ingredients of the dish will be ready to be served at roughly the same time.

First thing we need to remember is that there are various types of ham, some are excellent for oven dishes, but not so grand when it comes to keeping your fried eggs company. The perfect partner for our eggs is a piece of ham that is only very lightly salted and by no means salted with sea salt.

Whatever type of ham you are going to be frying, it should be carved into slices 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. When frying ham make sure you always use a heavy skillet with deep sides.

Once we've picked our piece of ham we'll need to trim the skin from the outer edges of the slices of ham but do NOT trim the fat (we'll do that later).

Place the slices in a heated pan and start to fry it over a medium heat. If there is a sufficient amount of fat on the piece of ham (which is what you are looking for in the perfect fried ham) no butter will need to be added to the pan. If the slices are lean, add a little bit of butter to the pan before heating. Do not use oil!

When frying smaller ham slices, they should be placed in a single layer with enough room between slices so that they are not crowded, this will allow pieces to be cooked and brown more evenly.

Though the amount of time required for frying the slices perfectly will depend on the thickness of the slices, you should be turning the slices each minute, until both sides are lightly browned. When the fat on the ham is a completely transparent color you should turn up the heat as this is the signal that the ham is nearly done. Yet, be careful not to let it overcook, as that will cause the meat to become dry, tough, and hard.. Once on the high heat the ham should be turned every 10 seconds, until the color of the ham is evenly brown. Lastly, trim any excess fat after ham is done frying.

Now, the moment of truth… your perfect fried eggs and your perfect fried ham can join each other on the plate together. Apart from the odd slice of bread (toasted if that has your preference) nothing else should even be near the plate apart from the eggs and ham. Ideally you place the ham pieces on the whites of the eggs, so the fragile yoke of the egg doesn't break.