Creation #2: Ham and Cheese Loaf (It's Not Going To Be Pretty)

 First off, I should probably mention my new model. I was thinking that it would add a little pizazz to my blog if I had a nice retro housewife model in my pictures. I discovered, though, that there's no way to convince a young woman to come to my house and let me take pictures of her that doesn't make me sound like a creep, so Michal came up with the solution. Let me introduce to you Lydia, my new retro housewife for my blog (at least until I get a new volunteer).

That being said, let's move on to today's creation. We decided on the ham and cheese loaf, another culinary gem from the Gel-Cookery Recipe Book, produced in the 1950's by the Knox Gelatin Company. I chose this one because it particularly grossed me out. Bits of ham and shreds of cheese suspended in unflavored gelatin with chunks of celery just did not sound appetizing to me at all, so I knew it would be a  fun recipe to try.

Sprinkling gelatin over cold water

 This gelatin recipe is a bit different from the last because for this recipe I had to soften the gelatin first. This is done by sprinkling the gelatin over some cold water and allowing it to (yep, you guessed it) soften. After the gelatin has softened and I had heated some water, I could pour the hot water into the softened gelatin and begin dissolving it. Since I was a little too fixated on making sure every last bit of gelatin was dissolved last time when we made the shrimp chili mold, I decided that Lydia could have the honor of dissolving the gelatin. Once it was completely dissolved, we could add some vinegar and salt, and put it in the freezer to chill. Once again, it needed to chill to unbeaten egg-white consistency before adding the remaining ingredients.

Lydia gets distracted

These included diced ham, shredded cheese, and diced celery. I discovered when I began trying to slice my ham that I had bought a pre-sliced ham. This is why it's always important to read the labels when buying ingredients. It didn't make much difference as far as the final result was concerned, but it is annoying to try and chop ham into perfect cubes when you've sliced it the wrong way than it was already sliced and everything just kind of falls apart on the cutting board.  I noticed by this point that Lydia was getting a little distracted while we waited for the gelatin to chill, so I put her on celery duty while I measured out the correct amount of shredded cheese. The original recipe calls for American processed cheese (shredded) but I couldn't imagine how one even began to shred processed cheese, so I just got a bag of shredded cheddar.

'It's fine the way it is!'

We lost track of time, which can happen when you're cooking and trying to slice pre-sliced ham, so when I took the gelatin out of the freezer it was less like unbeaten egg whites and more like cold congealed mucus with lumps. I was disappointed, as this was the second time I had done this today. The first time I had just dumped it down the sink and had Lydia do it, but this time neither one of us felt like spending all afternoon making and re-making gelatin, so we decided to go with what we had. 

                                            
  The ham, cheese, and celery were all mixed into the gelatin, and then it was time to put it into the mold. For this recipe I decided to go with my round decorative antique copper mold with the fruit on top. You wouldn't be able to see the fruit design imprinted on clear gelatin, but this seemed like the mold for the job.


We would place the mold into the refrigerator and let it chill for at least 3 hours. Lydia was not thrilled about waiting 3 hours, but it had to be done. I had learned an important lesson last time about letting the mold chill properly and I was going to make sure I did.

This bring us to the garnish. They say that the elderly are supposed to be the voice of experience and wisdom, but obviously I found the one elderly person that wasn't. The old bat at the grocery store was wrong, everyone agreed that the white mystery balls in the picture were pearl onions, and now I was in trouble because I hadn't purchased pearl onions. I had purchased mayonnaise. Yes, some part of my brain thought it might actually be possible to form perfectly smooth balls out of mayonnaise. I'm here to tell you that it's not.

In fact, it's not possible to form mayonnaise into anything other than mayonnaise, although Lydia did have a good time trying. The best she could do was a pointy blob of mayonnaise, smeared all over a slice of tomato by the time she was done. This wouldn't work. Our next thought was cream cheese, and this turned out to be an inspired idea. Not only is cream cheese easily rolled into balls, when you're ready to eat all you have to do is spread it across the tomato and add some ham and cheese loaf.

When it was almost time to pull out the mold, we put several lettuce leaves down on the platter we would use for display, and then placed the tomato slices on each side. On top of the tomatoes were placed one cream cheese ball and a sprig of parsley. When it was time, we would just place the loaf onto the garnish. But first, we had to get it out of the mold...

Last time we had no idea what we were doing and made quite a mess of trying to get the gelatin out of the mold. This time we had learned from experience (and Googling), and felt confidant we knew what to do. I placed the mold into some warm water, and we then counted out 30 seconds while my roommate Mary stared at us like we were idiots. After 30 seconds I pulled the mold out, put a plate over it, and flipped it over. The loaf immediately slid out of the mold! It was an amazing triumph. We then slid the loaf onto the garnish, and I added one last touch: A toothpick upon with I had speared two olives stuck in the middle of the loaf.

My final words on the matter would have to be cold and slimy. While I think this would be an excellent summer dish, when it's hot and no one feels like using the oven, and you want something cool and light, then this would be the perfect dish. Otherwise, it's a cold slimy blob with bits of ham, cheese, and celery in it. While the tomato and cream cheese did add to its overall appeal, for the most part I wasn't impressed. Maybe I'll try it again in the summer and see what I think.