Baked Stuffed Ham Steaks with Sweet Potato-Sausage Stuffing and Southern Style Green Beans
July 7th, 2008 
Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery Vol.11
Soufflé to Tongue
1966
I made another go at the Encyclopedia this week and came out with two more winners. Volume 11 is rich with possibilities. It contains chapters on such topics as South American, Southeast Asian, Southwestern, Spanish, Swedish and Southern cookery as well sections devoted to Sour-Cream (five pages!), Tongue, Toast (six pages!), and Tetrazzini. My only general criticism so far is that there are an inordinate number of recipes in the books that call for MSG. It’s a little weird.
The Ham recipe is as it sounds, two steaks sandwiching a stuffing made from one cup mashed sweet potatoes, 3 cups bread cubes, 1/3 cup chopped celery, 1/4 cup chopped onion, 4 sausage links, poultry seasoning and melted butter. Because they did not specify sausage type I used chicken/apple which I cooked and then sliced into the stuffing. The only other change I made was to sauté the onions and celery a bit to soften them, which is how I usually prepare stuffing. The stuffed steaks are covered and cooked for 30 minutes and they were excellent, if not slightly salty for my taste.
The intro for the green bean recipe says:
“We know nutritionists don’t approve of this method of cooking beans, but Southerners like them this way.”
And oh my lord, so do I. One and a half pounds of beans are trimmed and broken into pieces then cooked in water with 1/4 lb of salt pork for THREE HOURS!!! The fat melts, the water evaporates and the beans become soft and glossy and develop a rich pork-y flavor. Divine. I almost ate the whole pot but Doug fought me for it.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Dinner looks great. This what I call comfort food. You’ve given me an excellent idea for this weekends’ menu. Thanks.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
All I can say is yum. Pork, in all its forms, is the best tasting food on earth.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:53 am
I think I’ll try this one, sounds delicious!
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:03 am
Hi there Alison. How’s everything going? Just wanted to check in on you to see how you’re doing. Is the weather warm enough for you?
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Hi Alison,
Do you know the blog Eggbeater? I love it and the woman who writes it wrote a great post about people leaving obnoxious comments. You can find it at:
http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shuna/2008/05/writing-leaving.html
I can understand someone leaving combative comments on an opinionated political blog, but mean comments are unforgivable in any setting. And on a food blog? And on one that is so lovely and written with such goodwill as yours? Why? I hope you won’t let one sad bitter little person stop you from writing this blog that I enjoy so much!
July 25th, 2008 at 10:16 am
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August 11th, 2008 at 10:34 am
We would like to feature this recipe on our blog. Please email sophiekiblogger@gmail.com if interested. Thanks
August 19th, 2008 at 6:15 am
I’m three-fourths European Jew, and most of my family’s culinary traditions focus on bagels and lox, matzoh ball soup, and chinese take-out. The remaining one-fourth, however, was my very (Baptist!) southern grandfather; this dish reminds me of him! He only cooked once a year, but it was always ham and glazed sweet potatoes. The green beans might have been a little too… green for him (green vegetables weren’t his “thing”) but three hours in fatback might have changed his view.
Perhaps this recipe will find its way into our repertoire!