Take from the fire, remove the towel, break off and remove the small bone at the larger end of it, and without tearing the meat. Remove the rind also, leaving only about two inches of it near the smaller end, cutting it so that it will be dentilated.
_To decorate._--It is decorated in several ways, according to taste and fancy. If the fat is not white after having removed the rind, spread a very thin coat of lard over it, place the ham on a dish, the fatty side up. Cut carrots, turnips, and beets, boiled tender, in fancy shapes, with paste-cutters or with a knife; place them tastefully all over the ham; place also all over it some parsley, capers, and olives. Chop some meat-jelly and put it all around the dish, and serve. In carving it, scrape back the lard and vegetables, slice, and serve.
_Another._--When boiled, trimmed, and the rind removed, put it in the oven for about twenty minutes, basting the while with a Madeira sauce. Serve with the sauce. Any kind of _purée_ may be served with it.
_Another._--When trimmed and soaked in water as directed, boil it with half wine and half water: the same seasonings as when boiled in water. Use either Catawba, Sauterne, or Rhine wine. It makes it more expensive, but it is excellent. It is served as when boiled in water.
_Another._--Boil it in claret wine, and when trimmed and decorated, serve it with a mushroom or a _truffle_ sauce.
_Another._--Boil, trim, and cut off the rind as described in the above cases; place the frill, and serve with _spinach au beurre._
[Illustration: A, skewers; B, carrot; C, truffle or mushroom; D, jelly; E, frill.]
_Another._--Boil and trim the ham as above, cut the rind in the same way. What is left of the rind is cut as seen in the cut opposite: that is, some small square pieces are cut off, from place to place, so that it resembles a checkerboard; stick two or more skewers in it, glaze it with essence of beef or with sugar, and serve either on a tomato-sauce or on _peas à l'Anglaise_.
_Ham English fashion._--Soak it in water and trim it as directed. Make some paste with water and flour only; spread a coat of this paste all over the ham, and then envelop it in buttered or oiled paper. Put it on the spit and baste with fat while it is roasting. Roast it for three or three and a half hours, according to size; remove the paper about two hours after it has been taken from the fire; cut a hole in the paste about an inch in diameter and on the lean side; pour into it, little by little, half a pint of good Madeira wine, cover the hole with some paste, placing a band of paper on it to prevent it from falling; put the ham back on the spit for about twenty minutes, and serve whole with Madeira sauce. We mean, by serving whole, with the paste around it, but not the paper.