"Epicurean cooks shall sharpen with cloyless sauce the
appetite."
Of all the vegetables of which a salad can be made, lettuce is the
greatest favourite. That lettuce which is _panachée_, says the
_Almanach des Gourmands_, that is, when it has streaked or variegated
leaves, is truly _une salade de distinction_. We prefer in this
country the fine, crisp, solid little heads, of which the leaves are
bright green. The milky juices of the lettuce are soporific, like
opium seeds, and predispose the eater to sleep, or to repose of temper
and to philosophic thought.
After, or before, lettuce comes the fragrant celery, always an
appetizer. Then the tomato, a noble fruit as sweet in smell as Araby
the blest, which makes an illustrious salad. Its medicinal virtue is
as great as its gastronomical goodness. It is the friend of the well,
for it keeps them well, and the friend of the sick, for it brings them
back to the lost sheep-folds of hygeia.
There are water-cress and dandelion, common mustard, boiled asparagus,
and beet root, potato salad, beloved of the Germans, the cucumber,
most fragrant and delicate of salads, a salad of eggs, of lobsters, of
chickens, sausages, herrings, and sardines. Anything that is edible
can be made into a salad, and a vegetable mixture of cold French
beans, boiled peas, carrots and potato, onion, green peppers, and
cucumber, covered with fresh mayonnaise dressing, is served ice cold
in France, to admiration.
To learn to make a salad is the most important of qualifications for
one who would master the art of entertaining.