The Secret

To getting the girls to eat until they are stuffed is apparently to feed them ham.

I made a Cook’s spiral half ham, mashed potatoes, butternut, and my first ever ham-based gravy.  They each ate a couple of good-sized slices worth of ham, including the seconds, and Sadie asked for more gravy, including on her potatoes.  We started them with a dab of gravy on the side, and a dab of the sweet dipping sauce left over from glazing on the side.  They each demolished their sides significantly, on top of the ham.  Sadie also learned to use a table knife to cut her own.

Each item was exceptional, but the big story was the gravy.  I had seen reference to red eye gravy, but the closest I ever came to having “gravy” with ham was my grandfather’s sweet raisin sauce.  I was intrigued by the idea of a gravy including coffee as an ingredient.  My variant used half a cup of ham juices from when it was most of the way finished, just before glazing, a couple tablespoons or so of butter, a dash of onion powder, a pinch of celery flakes, a tiny pinch of red pepper, a dash of white pepper, about three tablespoons of flour, a quarter cup or so of black coffee from the pot on the coffeemaker, between a cup and a cup and a half of water, and probably around a tablespoon of dark brown sugar to cut the bitter aspect.  It’s the first gravy I’ve ever made successfully without beef or chicken bouillon, as far as I can recall, and logically enough.  It’s something I could only hope to duplicate in the future.

I could easily serve that meal in a restaurant and have people coming back and sending their friends.  It’ll have to go on the menu of my hypothetical comfort foods restaurant we’ve joked about.

1. Your redeye gravy sounds spot on. It’s one of my favorites, too! I haven’t been able to get my kids to eat the gravy yet, but boy do they snarf down ham.

   Posted by Venomous Kate  on  12/31  at  12:29 AM  from  Here
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