The yolk of a raw egg, a tablespoonful of mixed mustard, one
fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, six tablespoonfuls of oil.
Stir the yolk, mustard, and salt together with a fork until
they begin to thicken; add the oil gradually, stirring all the
time.
An excellent salad dressing is also made by using the yolk of
hard-boiled eggs, some cold mashed potatoes well pressed together with
a fork, oil, vinegar, mustard, and salt rubbed in, in the proportions
of two of oil to one of vinegar.
A salad must be fresh and freshly made, to be good. Never serve a
salad the second day; and it is not well to cover a delicate salad
with too much mayonnaise. The very heart of the celery or the
delicate inner leaves of the lettuce are the best for dinners. The
heavy chicken and lobster, cabbage and potato salads, are dishes for
lunches and suppers.
The chief employment of a kitchen maid, in France, where a man cook is
kept, is to wash the vegetables; and you see her swinging the salad in
a wire safe after washing it delicately in fresh water. The care
bestowed on these minor morals of cookery, so often wholly neglected,
adds the finishing touch to the excellence of a French dinner.
For a green mayonnaise dressing, so much admired on salmon, use a
little chopped spinach and finely chopped parsley. The juice from
boiled beets can be used to make a fine red dressing. Two of these
dishes will make a plain, country lunch-table very nice, and will have
an appetizing effect, as has anything that betokens care, forethought,
neatness, and taste.
Some people cannot eat oil. Often the best oil cannot be bought in a
retired and rural neighbourhood. But an excellent substitute is fresh
butter or clarified chicken-fat, very carefully prepared, and icy
cold. The yolks of four raw eggs, one tablespoonful of salt, one of
mustard, the juice of a lemon, and a speck of cayenne pepper should be
used.
Two drops of onion juice, or a bit of onion sliced, will add great
piquancy to salad dressing, if every one likes onion.
I have never tried the following recipe,--I have tried all the
others,--but I have heard that it was very good:
Four tablespoonfuls of butter, one of flour, one tablespoonful
of salt, one of sugar, one heaping teaspoonful of mustard, a
speck of cayenne, one cupful of milk, half a cupful of
vinegar, three eggs. Let the butter get hot in a saucepan. Add
the flour and stir until smooth, being careful not to brown.
Add the milk and boil up. Place the saucepan in another of hot
water. Beat the eggs, salt, pepper, sugar, and mustard
together, and add the vinegar. Stir this into the boiling
mixture and stir until it thickens like soft custard, which
will be about five minutes. Set away to cool, and when cold,
bottle and place in the ice-chest. This will keep two weeks.
If one wishes to use prepared mayonnaise it is better to buy that
which is sold at the grocers. It has not the charm of a fresh
dressing, however, but is rather like those elaborated impromptus
which some studied talkers get off.
A very pretty salad can be made of nasturtium-blossoms, buttercups, a
head of lettuce, and a pint of water-cresses. It is to be covered with
the French dressing and eaten immediately.
Asparagus is so good in itself that it seems a shame to dress it as a
salad; yet it is very good eaten with oil, vinegar, and salt.
Cauliflower, cold, is delicious as a salad, and can be made very
ornamental with a garniture of beet root, which is a good ingredient
for a salad of salt codfish, boiled.
Sardine salads are very appetizing for lunch. Arrange a cold salmon or
codfish on a bed of lettuce. Split six sardines, remove the bones, and
mix them into the dressing. Garnish the whole dish with sardines, and
cover with the dressing.
All kinds of cooked fish can be served with salads. Lettuce is the
best green salad to serve with them; but all cooked and cold
vegetables go well with fish. Add capers to the mayonnaise.
A housekeeper who has conquered the salad question can always add to
the plainest dinner a desirable dish. She can feed the hungry, and she
can stimulate the most jaded fancy of the over-fastidious _gourmet_ by
these delicate and consummate luxuries.