SALADS
The English salad is not as a rule a success, and undoubtedly the chief
fault in its making lies in the inferior quality of the oil used.
Provided with good oil the next point of importance in a green salad
is the condition of the material. If the lettuces, endive, cress or
watercress are faded the salad is ruined. The lettuce, etc., should
of course be freshly cut, if possible, but where this is not feasible
it should be chosen with care, and at once put into water--not soused
into a basin, but placed with its root only in water--as if it were a
flower--in a cool place. In this way a lettuce will keep in perfect
condition for two or three days, if needs be. Cress and endive should
be treated likewise. Let us now consider the making of
French Salad
Choose crisp lettuces, cut off the stalk and remove the outer leaves
(when well washed these may be used for lettuce purée), tear the
lettuce in pieces (on no account cut it), and wash it in a bowl of
cold water. Place it in a clean cloth and swing it round until dry.
This method of drying by centrifugal force gets rid of the moisture and
does not bruise the lettuce.
Now rub the salad bowl very thoroughly with a slice of onion, and if
the flavour is liked place half a small peeled onion in the centre of
the bowl. Mix in the bowl 1 dessertspoonful of the best wine vinegar
and 2 tablespoonsful of oil, and add a little salt and a good dusting
of freshly-ground black pepper. Stir the lettuce round lightly in the
mixture and serve. This quantity of oil and vinegar is sufficient for
about 2 medium lettuces, but only experience teaches the exact quantity
to use. The lettuce should not be swimming in the mixture: the leaves
should merely be coated with it, and no remains of it should be left at
the bottom of the bowl when the salad is mixed.
The chief faults of the average salad, next to the use of inferior oil
and flabby lettuce, are the excess of dressing, the excess of vinegar,
and the use of pepper which is not freshly ground. A salad prepared in
the manner described is as different as chalk is from cheese from the
salad which is generally put before one, and no more difficult to make.
Salads of endive, corn, Batavian lettuce, or cress, should be made in
just the same manner.
For orange salad and orange and cherry salad a similar dressing is
used, and I notice how these fruit salads are growing in favour.
Orange Salad
simply consists of the sections of oranges free from pith and skin,
string and pips, arranged in a bowl and dressed with oil and vinegar.
Orange and Cherry Salad
consists of glacé cherries arranged in the centre of the bowl
surrounded by sections of oranges, and dressed with the same mixture.
Another excellent salad, not very generally known, consists of sliced
apple and shred celery; it is known as
Apple and Celery Salad,
and is dressed with mayonnaise sauce, or with whipped cream flavoured
with salt and pepper. This
Cream Dressing
is newer than mayonnaise, and is generally appreciated. Another
delicious salad on which it is used is
Nut Salad
This is made of Brazil nuts broken into pieces, shred celery, and tiny
dice of bread and butter. This salad is equally good if dressed with
cream or with mayonnaise sauce.
As mayonnaise is generally spoiled by too overpowering a use of
vinegar, I give here an excellent recipe in which the special oil and
vinegar already mentioned are employed.
Good Mayonnaise Sauce
To make mayonnaise sauce, first rinse the basin in very cold water, and
make the sauce in a cool place, if possible keeping the basin on ice
while you mix the sauce. See that the oil is perfectly good, and add
it drop by drop. This is important, otherwise the sauce may curdle.
Use the very best vinegar, as a very little of this will suffice and
prevent the sauce from becoming thin. Put the yolks of 2 raw eggs in
a basin, and add to them a pinch of salt, ½ a saltspoonful of white
pepper, and ½ a teaspoonful of French and English mustard in the dry
state, and a tiny pinch of cayenne. Work these together, then stir in
drop by drop 3 gills of olive oil. When quite thick add ½ a teaspoonful
of lemon juice, and 2 dessertspoonsful of the best vinegar drop by
drop, and set in a cool place, or on ice, until required. In case
the sauce curdles the yolk of another egg must be beaten up, and the
curdled sauce added to it little by little.
Oil and Vinegar Dressing
Mix 1 saltspoonful of salt and a good pinch of black pepper with 1
tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar. Stir until the salt has dissolved,
then add drop by drop 3 tablespoonsful of olive oil.
The other dressings generally used are sauce tartare, salad dressing
and sauce vinaigrette, for which I give the following excellent
recipes:--
Sauce Tartare
Chop 1 shallot very fine, with ½ a tablespoonful of chervil, the same
of tarragon, and 12 capers, also finely minced. Place these ingredients
in a bowl and add ½ a teaspoonful of mustard powder (English), the
yolks of 2 raw eggs, and drop by drop 1 teaspoonful of vinegar; then
a pinch of salt and ⅓ the quantity of pepper. Pour in by degrees,
stirring all the time, a teacupful of oil. If too thick add drop by
drop a little more vinegar, and if too salt a little more mustard and
oil.
Salad Dressing
Beat the hard-boiled yolk of 2 eggs with 1 teaspoonful of dry mustard.
When smooth add by slow degrees 8 dessertspoonsful of oil, 5 of
vinegar, 1½ of sugar, and ½ a teacupful of cream. Beat together with a
silver spoon until smooth. If bottled this dressing will keep for some
days.
Sauce Vinaigrette
Mince very finely 1 shallot, 2 good sprigs of parsley and the same
quantity of chervil and chives. Place with them about 1 tablespoonful
of salt, 1 teaspoonful of fresh black pepper and 3 tablespoonsful of
vinegar. Stir well together, add by degrees, stirring all the time, 4
tablespoonsful of oil.
In salads where chives, onion or garlic are mentioned, it is best,
unless the taste of those about to partake of the dish is known, to
omit them, and either to rub the salad bowl with onion or garlic or to
prepare what is called a chapon:--
Chapon
Cut a neat square of crust from a French loaf, sprinkle it with salt
and rub it with raw onion or with a clove of garlic. Put this at the
bottom of the salad bowl, place the salad on it and mix thoroughly.
Serve immediately.
Vegetable Marrow Salad
Boil or steam the marrow, drain, and when cold cut into neat pieces,
place in a salad bowl with a dressing of oil and vinegar.
Artichoke Salad
Boil the number of Japanese artichokes required for 5 minutes, and when
cold place in a salad bowl with slices of cold boiled beetroot and
celery. Cover with mayonnaise sauce. Garnish with beetroot and celery.
French Bean Salad
Boil the beans whole, drain them, and dry them on a cloth, when quite
cold place them in a bowl and pour over them some salad oil, shake some
black pepper over them and a small amount of salt, then drop over them
a few drops of the best wine vinegar, and if liked a sprinkling of very
finely-minced tarragon and chives.
Lettuce Stalk Salad
Take the stalks from lettuces running to seed, and tie them in bundles,
cutting them more or less the same size. Place in a saucepan and boil
until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Take out and drain them, and allow
them to get quite cold. Then cut up into slices of the same size, place
in a salad bowl and cover with mayonnaise sauce.
Nut and Celery Salad
Crack some Brazil nuts and cut the kernels into 3 or 4 pieces. Take an
equal quantity of crisp cleanly-washed and shred celery. Mix together
and dress with mayonnaise sauce. Pile in the centre of the salad bowl
and garnish with sliced tomato or beetroot.
Winter Salad
Scald and then boil one or two large onions till soft. When cold, slice
the onion, mix it with shred celery and sliced beetroot. Dress with
oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Walnut and Celery Salad,
which is simply ⅔ celery to ⅓ walnuts tossed in mayonnaise sauce.
Russian Salad, No. 1
Cut up some beetroot into shapes, add to this a little chopped celery,
some turnip, carrot, potato, all cooked and cut into dice; pour some
mayonnaise over it all, mix well, and garnish with bunches of cress.
If liked, a French vinaigrette dressing may be used instead of the
mayonnaise.
Russian Salad, No. 2
Cut in thin slices a few small cold steamed potatoes, 1 small beetroot
boiled, 1 small carrot, a few cold peas or French beans, 1 little
pickled cabbage, 1 sardine filleted and chopped fine. Mix all well
together. Rub the salad bowl with onion. For the dressing take a
teaspoonful each of raw mustard and salt, a little coralline pepper, a
pinch of curry powder, ½ a wineglass of sherry and the same of Lucca
oil. Mix all well together and pour over the salad.
Haricot Bean Salad
Soak the haricots for 6 or 8 hours and then boil them until tender.
Leave until cold. Pile them in the centre of a salad bowl and surround
with shred tomato or beetroot and some shred celery. Cover with whipped
cream flavoured with salt and white pepper. If liked dip the haricot
in oil and vinegar in addition to the cream. Decorate the cream with a
little coralline pepper, and arrange the beetroot so that it makes a
red border to the white pyramid of cream.
Salade d’Estrées
Take some cold boiled roots of celeriac, some cold potatoes and
beetroot. In the middle of the salad bowl make a heap of endive and
blanched celery stalks, frizzed, in short lengths. Surround with the
vegetables sliced. Pour over the whole a good mayonnaise sauce.
Garnished Salad, with Imperial Mayonnaise
Pound and press through a sieve 4 large anchovies (no bones), boil 6
eggs hard, halve them and neatly remove the yolks, which pound to a
paste with butter, the powdered anchovies, ¼ teaspoonful of mace, a
little pepper. Mix well, and roughly fill the egg cases. Fill almost
to the top the salad bowl with finely-shred lettuce, endive, cooked
beetroot, sliced (very thin) artichoke (cooked), and finally add some
cucumber ribbons. Then arrange with care the egg baskets and pour
round, but not over the halved eggs, the following dressing (imperial
mayonnaise):--Put into a basin ½ pint of aspic, and add 1 tablespoonful
of olive oil, 2 teaspoonsful of vinegar, and a trifle of salt and
pepper. Beat with an egg whisk until all the ingredients are well
blended. Set the salad in a pan of ice water if possible, or in a very
cold place until served.
Celery Salad
Wash some fresh crisp celery and use only the inner sticks. Cut it in
½ inch lengths, place in a salad bowl which has been rubbed with onion
and dress with mayonnaise sauce. Decorate with a little chopped truffle.
Salade d’Asperges à la d’Aumale
This is a way of using cold cooked asparagus with mousseline sauce. Put
½ gill of new milk into a pan with the yolks of 4 eggs, and 3 crushed
long peppercorns; place this all in a bainmarie, or larger stewpan,
half filled with boiling water, and whisk it all together well for a
few minutes; now add 1 oz. of butter, adding it bit by bit, and only
putting in another piece when the first is thoroughly melted and worked
in. Season it as you whisk with a dust of salt and nutmeg, and a tiny
squeeze of lemon juice at the last. When it is finished this sauce
should look like frothed cream.
Another salad which is suitable for hot weather is
Lettuce and Tomato Salad
For this proceed exactly as for a plain lettuce salad, but add a ring
of fresh tomato, peeled, and not too thinly sliced.
Other nice salads are--
French Tomato Salad
Take 6 ripe, sound tomatoes, wipe them, and place them in boiling water
for a minute; drain, peel, let them cool, quarter them (this should
be done while they are in the salad bowl, so that the juice is not
wasted); add a teaspoonful of finely-chopped chives or a chapon; dress
with oil and vinegar.
Tomato and Egg Salad
Proceed as before, but to each tomato add ½ a hard-boiled egg,
quartered, and dress with mayonnaise sauce.
For the following salads _see_
_10s. a Head for Housebooks._
Green Pea.
Russian.
Haricot Bean.
Tomato.
Broccoli or Cauliflower.
Potato.
Tomato and French Bean.
Simple Lettuce.
Mixed.
_The Single-Handed Cook._
Beetroot and Celery.
Beetroot and Cauliflower.
Haricot Bean.
Tomato Mayonnaise.
Green Pea.
Rockstock.
Beggar Man’s.
Tomato and Capers.
Apple and Celery.
INDEX
Artichoke Chips, 28
Soufflé, 48
Artichokes with Cream Cheese, 30
and Eggs, 29
au Gratin, 28
Scalloped, 28
Stuffed, 30
Asparagus, 21
Boiled, 21
Iced, 23
au Jus, 22
Sprue à la Pompadour, 22
Baked Cheese Sandwiches, 66
Tomatoes and Macaroni, 58
Batter, to make, 35
Beignets of Vegetable Marrow, 34
Bouchées d’Artichauts, 29
Brussels-Sprouts, 15
Sprouts au Jus, 15
Sprouts à la Maître d’Hôtel, 15
Butter, Oiled, 22
Buttered Macaroni, 54
Cabbage with Cheese Sauce, 14
à la Crême, 14
Carrots à la Flamande, 36
Glazed, 36
Cauliflower Fritters, 18
au Gratin, 18
with Tomato Sauce, 17
Celeri à la Duchesse, 38
Celery, Fried, 39
Chapon, 84
Cheese Aigrettes, 68
Balls, 67
Butterflies, 67
Canapés, 70
Custards, 70
Custard Pudding, 69
Croûtons, 70
Mushrooms, 69
Patties, 69, 71
Potatoes, 25
Pudding, 68
Corn with Buttered Egg, 42
and Cheese Cream, 45
to cook, 41
Curried, 44
Fritters, 44
au Gratin, 42
au Gratin with Tomato Sauce, 43
with Poached Eggs, 42
Rissoles, 44
Cream of Artichokes, 29
of Cheese, 71
Curried Cabbage, 77
Macaroni, 78
Potatoes, 78
Curries, Maigre, 75
Curry Sauce, 77
Vegetable, 76
Egg and Corn Toast, 42
Fish and Macaroni, 56
Fonds Artichauts au Gratin, 30
Flageolets, 13
au Beurre, 13
à la Crême de Fromage, 14
au Maître d’Hôtel, 14
French Beans, 12
Glazed Turnips, 37
Haricot Beans, 46
Bean Curry, 78
Beans à la Milanaise, 46
Beans with Soubise Sauce, 47
Beans with Tomato Purée, 47
“Humitas,” 45
Irish Rarebit, 65
Italian Cakes, 57
Lentil Curry, 78
Lentils, 47
with Curry Sauce, 48
Macaroni Cheese, 53
Cutlets, 55
au Gratin, 53
au Jus, 54
à la Italienne, 53
à la Napolitaine, 53
and Spaghetti, 52
with Tomatoes, 56
Maigre Soufflés, 48
Mayonnaise Sauce, 82
Mushroom Croûtes, 31
Mushrooms au Gratin, 31
and Roes on Toast, 32
Nettles, Boiled, 15
Stewed, 16
Oil and Vinegar Dressing, 83
Omelette, 73
Asparagus, 74
Cheese, 75
with Corn, 44
French Bean, 75
Green Pea, 74
Potato, 74
Tomato, 74
Onions au Gratin, 38
Parmesan Eggs, 66
Puffs, 66
Peas with Béchamel Sauce, 12
Petit Pois au Beurre, 12
Plain Oiled Butter, 22
Poached Eggs and Macaroni, 55
Potato Cakes, Curried, 27
and Cabbage Cakes, 26
Cromeskies, 27
Croquettes, 24
Mould, 27
Potatoes, 24
à la Crême, 25
au Gratin, 26
Purée of Turnip Tops, 17
Vegetable, 50
of Watercress, 16
Rice, 59
Balls, 63
and Fish Toast, 64
Rice, Fried, 61
Devilled, 61
à l’Italienne, 61
with Savoury, 63
Risotto à la Milanaise, 62
Salad, Apple and Celery, 81
Artichoke, 85
Celery, 89
Dressing, 84
French, 79
French Bean, 85
French Tomato, 90
Garnished, with Imperial Mayonnaise, 88
Haricot Bean, 87
Lettuce Stalk, 85
Lettuce and Tomato, 90
Nut, 82
Nut and Celery, 86
Orange, 81
Orange and Cherry, 81
Russian, 87
Tomato and Egg, 90
Vegetable Marrow, 85
Walnut and Celery, 86
Winter, 86
Salade d’Asperges à la Aumale, 89
d’Estrées, 88
Salsify Fritters, 35
Scallops, 35
Sauce, Cheese, 43
Curry, 45
Soubise, 47
Tartare, 83
Tomato, 43
Vinaigre, 84
White, 42
Savoury Rice Pudding, 64
Soufflé, Celery, 50
Macaroni, 51
Mushroom and Rice, 51
Rice and Cheese, 51
Savoury Rice, 50
Vegetable, 49
Spaghetti à l’Indienne, 58
Pudding, 57
Spinach à la Crême, 20
Patties, 19
and Tomatoes, 19
Stewed Rice and Cabbage, 63
Lettuce, 17
Stuffed Aubergines, 32
Tomato Canapés, 34
Cheese Croûtons, 71
Pie, 33
Purée, 18
Tomatoes à la Crême de Fromage, 33
au Gratin, 32
Turnips à la Poulette, 37
Tops à la Crême, 20
Vegetables, to Boil, 11
Welsh Rarebit, 65
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
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