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Salads, Sandwiches
and
Chafing-Dish Dainties
Salads, Sandwiches
and
Chafing-Dish Dainties
With Fifty Illustrations of Original Dishes
By
Janet McKenzie Hill
Editor of "The Boston Cooking-School Magazine" Author of "Practical Cooking and Serving"
NEW EDITION WITH ADDITIONAL RECIPES
"Things which in hungry mortals' eyes find favor." BYRON
Boston Little, Brown, and Company 1909
Copyright, 1899, 1903 BY JANET M. HILL.
Printers S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.
TO
MRS. WILLIAM B. SEWALL,
President of the Boston Cooking-School Corporation,
IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF THE OPPORTUNITY
PRESENTED BY HER FOR CONGENIAL WORK IN A
CHOSEN FIELD OF EFFORT, THIS LITTLE BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
* * * * *
THE favor with which the first edition of this little book has been received by those who were interested in the subjects of which it treats, is eminently gratifying to both author and publishers. It has occasioned the purpose to make a second edition of the book, even more complete and helpful than the first.
In making the revision, wherever the text has suggested a new thought that thought has been inserted; under the various headings new recipes have been added, each in its proper place, and the number of illustrations has been increased from thirty-seven to fifty. A more complete table of contents has been presented, and also a list of the illustrations; the alphabetical index has been revised and made especially full and complete.
JANET M. HILL. April 10, 1903.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
* * * * *
THERE is positive need of more widespread knowledge of the principles of cookery. Few women know how to cook an egg or boil a potato properly, and the making of the perfect loaf of bread has long been assigned a place among the "lost arts."
By many women cooking is considered, at best, a homely art,—a necessary kind of drudgery; and the composition, if not the consumption, of salads and chafing-dish productions has been restricted, hitherto, chiefly to that half of the race "who cook to please themselves." But, since women have become anxious to compete with men in any and every walk of life, they, too, are desirous of becoming adepts in tossing up an appetizing salad or in stirring a creamy rarebit. And yet neither a pleasing salad, especially if it is to be composed of cooked materials, nor a tempting rarebit can be evolved, save by happy accident, without an accurate knowledge of the fundamental principles that underlie all cookery.
In a book of this nature and scope, the philosophy of heat at different temperatures, as it is applied in cooking, and the more scientific aspects of culinary processes, could not be dwelt upon; but, while we have not overlooked the ABC of the art, our special aim has been to present our topics in such a simple and pleasing form that she who attempts the composition of the dishes described herein will not be satisfied until she has gained a deeper insight into the conditions necessary for success in the pursuit of these as well as other fascinating branches of the culinary art.
Care has been exercised to meet the actual needs of those who wish to cultivate a taste for light, wholesome dishes, or to cater to the vagaries of the most capricious appetites.
There is nothing new under the sun, so no claim is made to absolute originality in contents. In this and all similar works, the matter of necessity must consist, in the main, of old material in a new dress.
Though the introduction to Part III. was originally written for this book, the substance of it was published in the December-January (1898-99) issue of the Boston Cooking-School Magazine. From time to time, also, a few of the recipes, with minor changes, have appeared in that journal.
Illustrations by means of half-tones produced from photographs of actual dishes were first brought out, we think, by The Century Company; in this line, however, both in the number and in the variety of the dishes prepared, the author may justly claim to have done more than any other has yet essayed. The illustrations on these pages were prepared expressly for this work, and the dishes and the photographs of the same were executed under our own hand and eye. That results pleasing to the eye and acceptable to the taste await those who try the confections described in this book is the sincere wish of the author.
JANET M. HILL
Contents
Part I.
SALADS
PAGE INTRODUCTION 3 THE DRESSING 6 USE OF DRESSINGS 7 ARRANGEMENT OF SALADS 8 COMPOSITION OF MAYONNAISE 8 VALUE OF OIL 8 BOILED AND CREAM DRESSINGS 9 IMPORTANT POINTS IN SALAD-MAKING 9 WHEN TO SERVE SALADS WITH FRENCH OR MAYONNAISE DRESSING 9 WHEN TO SERVE A FRUIT SALAD 10 SALADS WITH CHEESE 10 HOW TO MAKE AROMATIC VINEGARS, KEEP VEGETABLES, AND PREPARE GARNISHES 11 HOW TO BOIL EGGS HARD FOR GARNISHING 11 TO POACH WHITES OF EGGS 11 ROYAL CUSTARD FOR MOULDS OF ASPIC 11 HOW TO USE GARLIC OR ONION IN SALADS 12 HOW TO SHELL AND BLANCH CHESTNUTS AND OTHER NUTS 12 HOW TO CHOP FRESH HERBS 13 HOW TO CUT RADISHES FOR A GARNISH 13 HOW TO CLEAN LETTUCE, ENDIVE, ETC. 13 HOW TO CLEAN CRESS, CABBAGE, ETC. 14 HOW TO RENDER UNCOOKED VEGETABLES CRISP 14 HOW TO BLANCH AND COOK VEGETABLES FOR SALADS 14 HOW TO CUT GHERKINS FOR A GARNISH 15 HOW TO FRINGE CELERY 15 HOW TO SHRED ROMAINE AND STRAIGHT LETTUCE 15 HOW TO KEEP CELERY, WATERCRESS, LETTUCE, ETC. 16 HOW TO COOK SWEETBREADS AND BRAINS 16 HOW TO PICKLE NASTURTIUM SEEDS 16 NASTURTIUM AND OTHER VINEGARS 17 TO DECORATE SALADS WITH PASTRY BAG AND TUBES 18 RECIPES FOR FRENCH DRESSING 21 RECIPES FOR MAYONNAISE DRESSING 22 BOILED, CREAM, AND OTHER DRESSINGS 26 VEGETABLE SALADS SERVED WITH FRENCH DRESSING 29 SALADS LARGELY VEGETABLE WITH MAYONNAISE, ETC. 39 INTRODUCTION TO FISH SALADS 53 RECIPES FOR FISH SALADS 55 RECIPES FOR VARIOUS COMPOUND SALADS 77 RECIPES FOR FRUIT AND NUT SALADS 89 HOW TO PREPARE AND USE ASPIC JELLY 97 CONSOMME AND STOCK FOR ASPIC 98 CHEESE DISHES SERVED WITH SALADS 105
Part II.
SANDWICHES
BREAD FOR SANDWICHES 115 THE FILLING 116 RECIPES FOR SAVORY SANDWICHES 119 RECIPES FOR SWEET SANDWICHES 131 RECIPES FOR BREAD AND CHOU PASTE 137 HOW TO BOIL MEATS FOR SANDWICHES 140 RECIPES FOR BEVERAGES SERVED WITH SANDWICHES 143
Part III.
CHAFING-DISH DAINTIES
CHAFING-DISHES PAST AND PRESENT 151 CHAFING-DISH APPOINTMENTS 153 ARE MIDNIGHT SUPPERS HYGIENIC? 157 HOW TO MAKE SAUCES 158 MEASURING AND FLAVORING 160 RECIPES FOR OYSTER DISHES 163 RECIPES FOR LOBSTER AND OTHER SEA FISH 169 RECIPES FOR CHEESE CONFECTIONS 182 RECIPES FOR EGGS 188 RECIPES FOR DISHES LARGELY VEGETARIAN 195 RECIPES FOR RECHAUFFES AND OLLA PODRIDA 202
Illustrations
Table laid for Sunday Night Tea Frontispiece The Tender Lettuce brings on softer Sleep Facing page 18 Cucumber Salad for Fish Course " " 28 Cooked Vegetable Salad " " 28 Potato Balls, Pecan Meats, and Cress Salad " " 32 Potato-and-Nasturtium Salad " " 32 Endive, Tomato, and Green String Bean Salad " " 36 Stuffed Beets " " 36 Cress, Cucumber, and Tomato Salad " " 41 Tomato Jelly with Celery and Nuts " " 41 Russian Vegetable Salad " " 48 Macedoine of Vegetable Salad " " 48 Miroton of Fish and Potato Salad " " 58 Cowslip and Cream Cheese Salad " " 58 Russian Salad " " 62 Halibut Salad " " 62 Shell of Fish and Mushrooms " " 68 Shrimp Salad in Cucumber Boat " " 68 Shrimp Salad, Border of Eggs in Aspic " " 70 Lobster Salad " " 70 Bluefish Salad " " 72 Litchi Nut and Orange Salad " " 72 Moulded Salmon Salad " " 74 Salad of Shrimps and Bamboo Sprouts " " 74 Spinach and Egg Salad " " 84 Marguerite Salad " " 84 Easter Salad " " 86 Country Salad " " 86 Fruit Salad " " 94 Turquoise Salad No. 2 " " 94 Cheese Ramequins " " 106 Individual Souffle of Cheese " " 106 Pineapple-Cheese and Crackers " " 110 Salad of Lettuce with Cheese and Macedoine " " 110 Chicken Salad Sandwiches " " 126 Halibut Sandwiches with Aspic " " 126 Wedding Sandwich Rolls " " 128 Club Sandwich " " 128 Boston Brown Bread " " 138 Bread cut for Sandwiches " " 138 Bowl of Fruit-Punch ready for serving " " 143 Copper Chafing-Dish with Earthen Casserole " " 149 Chafing-Dish, Filler, etc. " " 153 Course at Formal Dinner served in Individual Chafing-Dishes " " 157 Butter Balls with Utensils for Chafing-Dish " " 178 Moulded Halibut with Creamed Peas " " 178 Yorkshire Rabbit " " 186 Curried Eggs " " 186 Mushroom Cromeskies, ready for cooking " " 198 Prune Toast " " 198
PART I.
SALADS.
"Though my stomach was sharp, I could scarce help regretting To spoil such a delicate picture by eating."
INTRODUCTION.
At their savory dinner set Herbs and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses. —Milton.
Our taste for salads—and in their simplest form who is not fond of salads?—is an inheritance from classic times and Eastern lands. In the hot climates of the Orient, cucumbers and melons were classed among earth's choicest productions; and a resort ever grateful in the heat of the day was "a lodge in a garden of cucumbers."
At the Passover the Hebrews ate lettuce, camomile, dandelion and mint,—the "bitter herbs" of the Paschal feast,—combined with oil and vinegar. Of the Greeks, the rich were fond of the lettuces of Smyrna, which appeared on their tables at the close of the repast. In this respect the Romans, at first, imitated the Greeks, but later came to serve lettuce with eggs as a first course and to excite the appetite. The ancient physicians valued lettuce for its narcotic virtue, and, on account of this property, Galen, the celebrated Greek physician, called it "the philosopher's or wise man's herb."
The older historians make frequent mention of salad plants and salads. In the biblical narrative Moses wrote: "And the children of Israel wept again and said, We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick."
In his second Eclogue, Virgil represents a rustic maid, Thestylis, preparing for the reapers a salad called moretum. He wrote, also, a poem bearing this title, in which he describes the composition and preparation of the dish.
A modern authority says, "Salads refresh without exciting and make people younger." Whether this be strictly true or not may be an open question, but certainly in the assertion a grain of truth is visible; for it is a well-known fact that "salad plants are better tonics and blood purifiers than druggists' compounds." There is, also, an old proverb: "Eat onions in May, and all the year after physicians may play." What is health but youth?
Vegetables, fish and meats, "left over,"—all may be transformed, by artistic treatment, into salads delectable to the eye and taste. Potatoes are subject to endless combinations. First of all in this connection, before dressing the potatoes allow them to stand in bouillon, meat broth, or even in the liquor in which corned beef has been cooked; then drain carefully before adding the oil and other seasonings.
Of uncooked vegetables, cabbage lettuce—called long ago by the Greek physician, Galen, the philosopher's or wise man's herb—stands at the head of salad plants. Like all uncooked vegetables, lettuce must be served fresh and crisp, and the more quickly it is grown the more tender it will be. When dressed for the table, each leaf should glisten with oil, yet no perceptible quantity should fall to the salad-bowl. Watercress, being rich in sulphuretted oil, is often served without oil. Cheese or eggs combine well with cress; and such a salad, with a sandwich of coarse bread and butter, together with a cup of sparkling coffee, forms an ideal luncheon for a picnic or for the home piazza. Indeed, all the compound salads,—that is, salads of many ingredients,—more particularly if they are served with a cooked or mayonnaise dressing, are substantial enough for the chief dish of a hearty meal. Their digestibility depends, in large measure, on the tenderness of the different ingredients, as well as upon the freshness of the uncooked vegetables that enter into their composition.
A salad has this superiority over every other production of the culinary art: A salad (but not every salad) is suitable to serve upon any occasion, or to any class or condition of men. Among bon vivants, without a new salad, no matter how recherche the other courses may be, the luncheon, or dinner party, of to-day does not pass as an unqualified success.
While salads may be compounded of all kinds of delicate meats, fish, shellfish, eggs, nuts, fruit, cheese and vegetables, cooked or uncooked, two things are indispensable to every kind and grade of salad, viz., the foundation of vegetables and the dressing.
The Dressing.
Salads are dressed with oil, acid and condiments; and, sometimes, a sweet, as honey or sugar, is used. A perfect salad is not necessarily acetic. The presence of vinegar in a dressing, like that of onions and its relatives, on most occasions should be suspected only. Wyvern and other true epicures consider the advice of Sydney Smith, as expressed in the following couplet, "most pernicious":—
"Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And twice with vinegar procured from town."
Aromatic vinegars, a few drops of which, used occasionally, lend piquancy and variety to an every-day salad, can be purchased at high-class provision stores; but the true salad-maker is an artist, and prefers to compound her own colors (i.e., vinegars); therefore we have given several recipes for the same, which may be easily modified to suit individual tastes.
Indeed, the dressing of a salad, though in the early days of the century considered a special art,—an art that rendered it possible for at least one noted Royalist refugee to amass a considerable fortune,—is entirely a matter of individual taste, or, more properly speaking, of cultivation. On this account, particularly for a French dressing, no set rules can be given. By experience and judgment one must decide upon the proportions of the different ingredients, or, more specifically, upon the proportions of the oil and acid to be used. Often four spoonfuls of oil are used to one of vinegar. Four spoonfuls of oil to two, three or four of vinegar may be the proportion preferred by others, and the quantity may vary for different salads.
Though in many of the recipes explicit quantities of oil, vinegar and condiments are given, it is with the understanding that these quantities are indicated simply as an approximate rule; sometimes less and sometimes more will be required, according to the tendency of the article dressed to absorb oil and acid, or the taste of the salad dresser.
Use of Dressings.
The dressings in most common use are the French and the mayonnaise. A French dressing is used for green vegetables, for fruit and nuts, and to marinate cooked vegetables, or the meat or fish for a meat or fish salad. Mayonnaise dressing is used for meat, fish, some varieties of fruit, as banana, apple and pineapple, and for some vegetables, as cauliflower, asparagus and tomatoes. Any article to be served with mayonnaise, after standing an hour or more in a marinade,—i.e., French dressing,—should be carefully drained, as, by the pickling process, liquid will drain out into the bottom of the vessel and, mixing with the mayonnaise, will liquefy the same.
Arrangement of Salads.
In the arrangement of salads there may be great display of taste and individuality. By a judicious selection from materials that may be kept constantly in store, and with one or two window boxes, in which herbs are growing, any one, with a modicum of inventive skill, can so change and modify the appearance and flavor of her salads that she may seem always to present a new one.
Composition of Mayonnaise.
Mayonnaise dressing is composed largely of olive oil. A small amount of yolk of egg is used as a foundation. The oil, with the addition of condiments, is slightly acidulated with vinegar and lemon juice, one or both, and the whole is made very light and thick by beating. Mayonnaise forms a very handsome dressing, and it is much enjoyed by those who are fond of oil.
Value of Oil.
Pure olive oil is almost entirely without flavor, and a taste for it can be readily acquired; and, when we consider that it contains all the really desirable qualities of the once-famous cod-liver oil, except the phosphates, and that these may be supplied in the other materials of the salad, it would seem wise to cultivate a taste for so wholesome an article. By the addition of cream, in the proportion of a cup of whipped cream to a pint of dressing, those to whom oil has not become agreeable can so modify its "tone" that they too will enjoy the mayonnaise dressing.
Boiled and Cream Dressings.
For the French and mayonnaise dressings—particularly for the latter—we sometimes substitute a boiled and sometimes a cream dressing. In the first, butter, or cream, is substituted for oil, and the materials are combined by cooking. In the latter, as the name implies, cream is the basis, and this may be either sweet or sour.
Important Points in Salad-Making.
(1) The green vegetables should be served fresh and crisp.
(2) Meat and fish should be well marinated and cold.
(3) The ingredients composing the salad should not be combined until the last moment before serving.
When to Serve Salads with French or Mayonnaise Dressing.
As a rule, subject, however, to exceptions, light vegetable salads, dressed with French dressing, are served at dinner; while heavy meat or fish Salads are reserved for luncheon, or supper, and are served with mayonnaise or cream dressing.
When to Serve a Fruit Salad.
A fruit salad, with sweet dressing, is served with cake at a luncheon, or supper, or in the evening; that is, it may take the place of fruit in the dessert course. A fruit salad, with French or mayonnaise dressing, may be served as a first course at luncheon, or with the game or roast, though in the latter case the French dressing is preferable.
Salads with Cheese.
The rightful place of salads is with the roast or game. Here the crisp, green salad herbs, delicately acidulated, complement and correct the richness of these plats.
Occasionally when the game is omitted and an acid sauce accompanies the roast, a simple salad combined with cheese in some form, preferably cooked and hot, is selected to lengthen the menu. This same combination of hot cheese dish and salad should be a favorite one for home luncheons, when this meal is not made the children's dinner. The salad too in this combination, aided by the bread accompanying it, corrects by dilution the over concentration and richness of the cheese dish. In England neatly trimmed-and-cleansed celery stalks and cheese often precede the sweet course; but by virtue of its mission as a digester of everything but itself and of the common disinclination to have the taste of sweets linger upon the palate, the place of cheese as cheese is with the coffee.
HOW TO MAKE AROMATIC VINEGARS, TO KEEP VEGETABLES AND TO PREPARE GARNISHES.
How to Boil Eggs Hard for Garnishing.
Cover the eggs with boiling water. Set them on the back of the range, where the water will keep hot without boiling, about forty minutes. Cool in cold water, and with a thin, sharp knife cut as desired.
To Poach Whites of Eggs.
Turn the whites of the eggs into a well-buttered mould or cup, set upon a trivet in a dish of hot water, and cook until firm, either upon the back of the range or in the oven, and without letting the water boil. Turn from the mould, cut into slices, and then into fanciful shapes; or chop fine.
Royal Custard for Moulds of Aspic.
Beat together one whole egg and three yolks; add one-fourth a teaspoonful, each, of mace, salt and paprica, and, when well mixed, add half a cup of cream. Bake in a buttered mould, set in a pan of water, until firm. When cold cut in thin slices, then stamp out in fanciful shapes with French cutters. Use in decorating a mould for aspic jelly.
How to Use Garlic or Onion in Salads.
The salad-bowl may be rubbed with the cut surface of a clove of garlic, or a chapon may be used. A chapon, according to gastronomic usage, is a thin piece of bread rubbed on all sides with the cut surface of a clove of garlic and put into the salad-bowl before the seasonings. It is tossed with the salad and dressings, to which it imparts its flavor. It may be divided and served with the salad. Oftentimes, instead of one piece, several small cubes of bread are thus used.
After a slice of onion has been removed, the cut surface of the onion may be pressed with a rotary motion against a grater and the juice extracted; or a lemon-squeezer kept for this special purpose may be used.
How to Shell and Blanch Chestnuts.
Score the shell of each nut, and put into a frying-pan with a teaspoonful of butter for each pint of nuts. Shake the pan over the fire until the butter is melted; then set in the oven five minutes. With a sharp knife remove the shells and skins together.
How to Blanch Walnuts and Almonds.
Put the nut meats over the fire in cold water, bring quickly to the boiling-point, drain, and rinse with cold water, then the skins may be easily rubbed from the almonds; a small pointed knife will be needed for the walnuts.
How to Chop Fresh Herbs.
Pluck the leaves close, discarding the stems; gather the leaves together closely with the fingers of the left hand, then with a sharp knife cut through close to the fingers; push the leaves out a little and cut again, and so continue until all are cut. Now gather into a mound and chop to a very fine powder, holding the point of the knife close to the board. Put the chopped herb into a cheese-cloth and hold under a stream of cold water, then wring dry. Use this green powder for dusting over a salad when required.
How to Cut Radishes for a Garnish.
Cut a thin slice from the leaf end of each; cut off the root end so as to leave it the length of the pistil of a flower. With a small, sharp knife score the pink skin, at the root end, into five or six sections extending half-way down the radish; then loosen the skin above these sections. Put the radishes in cold water for a little time, when they will become crisp, and the points will stand out like the petals of a flower.
How to Clean Lettuce, Endive, Etc.
A short time before serving cut off the roots and freshen the vegetable in cold water. Then break the leaves from the stalk; dip repeatedly into cold water, examining carefully, until perfectly clean, taking care not to crush the leaves. Put into a French wire basket made for the purpose, or into a piece of mosquito netting or cheese-cloth, and shake gently until the water is removed. Then spread on a plate or in a colander and set in a cool place until the moment for serving.
How to Clean Cress.
Pick over the stalks so as to remove grass, etc. Wash and dry in the same manner as the lettuce, but without removing the leaves from the stems, except when the stems are very coarse and large.
How to Clean Cabbage and Cauliflower.
Let stand head downwards half an hour in cold salted water, using a tablespoonful of salt to a quart of water.
How to Render Uncooked Vegetables Crisp.
Put into cold water with a bit of ice and a slice of lemon. When ready to use, dry between folds of cheese-cloth and let stand exposed to the air a few moments.
How to Blanch and Cook Vegetables for Salads.
Cut the vegetables as desired, in cubes, lozenges, balls, juliennes, etc. Put over the fire in boiling water, and, after cooking three or four minutes, drain, rinse in cold water, and put on to cook in boiling salted water to cover. Drain as soon as tender.
How to Cut Gherkins for a Garnish.
Select small cucumber pickles of uniform size. With a sharp knife cut them, lengthwise, into slices thin as paper, without detaching the slices at one end; then spread out the slices as a fan is spread.
How to Fringe Celery.
Cut the stalks into pieces about two inches in length. Beginning on the round side at one end, with a thin, sharp knife, cut down half an inch as many times as possible; then turn the stalk half-way around and cut in the opposite direction, thus dividing the end into shreds, or a fringe. If desired, cut the opposite end in the same manner. Set aside in a pan of ice water containing a slice of lemon.
How to Shred Romaine and Straight Lettuce.
Wash the lettuce leaves carefully, without removing them from the stalk; shake in the open air, and they will dry very quickly; fold in the middle, crosswise, and cut through in the fold. Hold the two pieces, one above the other, close to the meat-board with the left hand, and with a sharp knife cut in narrow ribbons not more than a quarter of an inch wide.
How to Keep Celery, Watercress, Lettuce, Etc.
Many green vegetables—celery in particular—discolor or rust, if allowed to stand longer than a few hours after being wet. When brought from the market they may be put aside, in a tightly closed pail, or in a paper bag, in a cool, dry place. By thus excluding the air they will keep fresh several days. A short time before serving put them into ice-cold water to which a slice or two of lemon has been added.
How to Cook Sweetbreads and Brains.
Remove the thin outer skin or membrane and soak in cold water, changing the water often, an hour or more. Cover with salted boiling water, acidulated with lemon juice and flavored with vegetables, and cook, just below the boiling-point, twenty minutes. They are then ready for preparation in any of the ways mentioned. Tie the brains in a cloth before cooking.
How to Pickle Nasturtium Seeds.
As the seeds are gathered wash and dry them; then put them into vinegar to which salt (half a teaspoonful to a pint) has been added. When a sufficient quantity has been collected, scald fresh vinegar, add salt as before, and the seeds from which the first vinegar has been drained. Pour scalding hot into bottles, having the seeds completely covered with vinegar.
Nasturtium Vinegar.
Fill a quart jar loosely with nasturtium blossoms fully blown; add a shallot and one-third a clove of garlic, both finely chopped, half a red pepper, and cold cider vinegar to fill the jar; cover closely and set aside two months. Dissolve a teaspoonful of salt in the vinegar, then strain and filter.
Tarragon Vinegar.
Fill a fruit jar with fresh tarragon leaves or shoots, putting them in loosely; add the thin yellow paring of half a lemon with two or three cloves, and fill the jar with white wine or cider vinegar. Screw down the cover tightly, and allow the jar to stand in the sun two weeks; strain the vinegar through a cloth, pressing out the liquid from the leaves; then pass through filter paper, and bottle for future use. If a quantity be prepared, it were better to seal the bottles.
Fines Herbes Vinegar.
INGREDIENTS.
2 cups of tarragon vinegar. 2 tablespoonfuls of garden cress, chopped fine. 2 tablespoonfuls of sweet marjoram, chopped fine. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine. 4 small green capsicums, chopped fine. 2 shallots, chopped fine.
Method.—Mix the ingredients in a pint fruit jar, cover closely, and set in the sun; after two weeks strain, pass through filter paper and store in tightly corked bottles.
Fines Herbes Vinegar, No. 2.
INGREDIENTS.
1 pint of tarragon vinegar. 2 tablespoonfuls of seeds of garden cress, bruised or crushed. 2 tablespoonfuls of celery seeds, crushed. 2 tablespoonfuls of parsley seeds, crushed. 4 capsicums, chopped fine. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine.
Method.—Prepare as in preceding recipe.
To Decorate Salads with Mayonnaise by Use of Pastry Bag and Tubes.
Make the dressing very thick by the addition of oil, or use "jelly mayonnaise." Put the dressing into a pastry bag with star tube attached; twist the large end of the bag with the left hand, pressing the mixture towards the tube, and with the right guide the tube as in writing, to produce the pattern desired. To form stars, hold the bag in an upright position, point downward, press out a little of the dressing, then push the tube down gently, and raise it quickly to break the flow.
SALAD DRESSINGS.
SALAD DRESSINGS.
"Just, as in nature, thy proportions be, As full of concord their variety."
French Dressing.
INGREDIENTS.
1/2 a teaspoonful of salt. A few grains of cayenne or paprica. 1/4 a teaspoonful of pepper. 2 to 6 tablespoonfuls of vinegar or lemon juice. 6 tablespoonfuls of oil.
If desired,—
1/2 a teaspoonful of prepared mustard. 1/2 a teaspoonful of onion juice, or rub the salad-bowl with slice of onion, or clove of garlic.
Method.—Mix the condiments, add the oil and mix again; then add the acid, a few drops at a time, and beat until an emulsion is formed; then pour over the vegetables, toss with the spoon and fork, and serve. In Chicago a method has obtained that is well worth a trial: Put a bit of ice into the bowl with the condiments, and, by means of a fork pressed against or into this, use in mixing.
Second Method.—Pour the oil over the vegetables, toss, until the oil is evenly distributed, and dust with salt and pepper; then add the acid and toss again. When the salad is prepared at the table, the vegetables may be dressed in a bowl, then arranged on the serving-dish; or, if but one vegetable is used, it is preferable to serve from the dish in which it is dressed.
To Mix a Quantity of Dressing.
Put all the ingredients into a fruit jar, fit on one or more rubbers and the cover; then shake the jar vigorously, until a smooth dressing is formed.
Claret Dressing.
(For lettuce or fruit salad.)
Mix half a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, white or paprica, and four tablespoonfuls of oil; add gradually one tablespoonful of claret and one tablespoonful of lemon juice or vinegar.
Mayonnaise Dressing.
INGREDIENTS.
The yolks of 2 raw eggs. 1 pint of olive oil. 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. 2 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice. 1/2 a teaspoonful of salt. A few grains of cayenne or paprica.
If desired,—
1 teaspoonful, each, of mustard and powdered sugar.
Method.—An amateur will probably find it helpful to have all the utensils and ingredients thoroughly chilled, but the professional salad-maker thinks it expedient to have the ingredients and utensils of the same temperature as the room in which the dressing is to be served. Beat the yolks with a small wooden spoon or silver fork, add the condiments and mix again; then add one teaspoonful of vinegar, and, when well mixed with the other ingredients, add the oil, at first drop by drop. When the mixture has become of good consistency the oil may be added faster. When it is too thick to beat well, add a little of the lemon juice, then more oil, and so on alternately, until the ingredients are used. If a very heavy dressing is desired, as when it is to be put on with forcing-bag and tubes for a garnish, an additional half a cup of oil may be added without increasing the quantity of acid.
In preparing mayonnaise, there is absolutely no danger of curdling, if the eggs be fresh and the oil be added slowly, especially if the materials and utensils have been thoroughly chilled. If the yolks do not thicken when beaten with the condiments, but spread out over the bowl, you have sufficient indication that they will not thicken upon the addition of the oil, and it were better to select others and begin again. Take care to add the teaspoonful of acid to the yolks and condiments before beginning to drop in the oil, as this lessens the liability of the mixture to curdle.
How to Make Mayonnaise in Quantity.
If four quarts or more of dressing be required, make the full amount at one time; cut down the number of yolks to one for each pint of oil, but keep the usual proportions of the other ingredients. Use a Dover egg-beater from the start; after a little a teaspoonful of oil can be added instead of drops, and, very soon, a much larger quantity.
Curdled Mayonnaise.
Occasionally a mayonnaise will assume a curdled appearance; under such circumstances, often the addition of a very little of white of egg or a few drops of lemon juice, with thorough beating, will cause the sauce to resume its former smoothness. In case it does not become smooth, put the yolk of an egg into a cold bowl, beat well, and add to it the curdled mixture, a little at a time.
Red Mayonnaise.
Mix a level teaspoonful of Italian tomato pulp with a teaspoonful of mayonnaise dressing, and when well blended beat very thoroughly into a cup or more of the dressing, or add dressing until the desired tint is attained.
Red Mayonnaise, No. 2.
(For fish.)
Pound dried lobster coral in a mortar, sift, and add gradually to the dressing, to secure the shade desired. Or, after the salad is arranged in the bowl, or in nests, mask the top with mayonnaise of the usual color, and sift the coral over the centre, leaving a ring of yellow around the edge.
Sauce Tartare.
Make a mayonnaise dressing, using tarragon vinegar. To each cup of dressing add one shallot, chopped fine, two tablespoonfuls, each, of finely chopped capers, olives and cucumber pickles, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and one-fourth a teaspoonful of powdered tarragon.
Sardine Mayonnaise.
Skin and bone three sardines and pound them to a pulp; sift the cooked yolks of three eggs and add to the pulp; work until smooth, then add to one cup of mayonnaise dressing.
Jelly Mayonnaise.
(Used for masking cold fish or salads, or as a garnish with forcing-bag and tube.)
To a cup of mayonnaise dressing beat in gradually from two tablespoonfuls to one-third a cup of chilled but liquid aspic. More seasoning may be needed. Apply to a cold surface, or chill before using with forcing-bag.
Livournaise Sauce.
To a cup of mayonnaise dressing add a grating of nutmeg, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley and the pulp of eight anchovies.
To prepare the anchovies, wash, dry, remove skin and bones and pound to a pulp in a mortar.
Boiled Dressing for Chicken Salad.
INGREDIENTS.
1/2 a cup of chicken stock, well reduced. 1/2 a cup of vinegar. 1/4 a cup of mixed mustard. 1 teaspoonful of salt. 1/2 a teaspoonful of paprica. Yolks of 5 eggs. 1/2 a cup of oil. 1/2 a cup of thick, sweet cream.
Method.—Simmer the liquor in which a fowl has been cooked, until it is well reduced. Put the stock, vinegar and mustard into a double boiler, and add the salt and pepper. Beat the yolks of the eggs and add carefully to the hot mixture, cooking in the same manner as a boiled custard. When cold and ready to serve, beat in with a whisk the oil, and then fold in the cream, beaten stiff with a Dover egg-beater. Melted butter, added before the dressing is cold, may be substituted for the oil.
Boiled Salad Dressing.
INGREDIENTS.
1 teaspoonful of mustard. 1/2 a teaspoonful of salt. 1/4 a teaspoonful of paprica. Yolks of 3 eggs. 4 tablespoonfuls of melted butter. 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. 1/2 a cup of thick cream. 2 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice.
Method.—Mix together the mustard, salt and paprica, and add the yolks of eggs; stir well and add slowly the butter, vinegar and lemon juice, and cook in the double boiler until thick as soft custard. When cool and ready to serve, add the cream, beaten stiff with the Dover egg-beater.
Cream Salad Dressing.
INGREDIENTS.
3/4 a cup of thick cream. 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar or lemon juice. 1/4 a teaspoonful of salt. A dash of white pepper and paprica.
Method.—Add the seasonings to the cream and beat with a Dover egg-beater until smooth and light. Add a scant fourth a cup of grated horseradish, for a change. The radish should be freshly grated, and added to the cream after it is beaten.
Dressing for Cole-Slaw.
Beat the yolks of three eggs with half a teaspoonful of made mustard, a dash of pepper and one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt; add one-third a cup of vinegar and two tablespoonfuls of butter, and cook over hot water until slightly thickened. Set aside to become cold before using.
Bacon Sauce.
Heat five tablespoonfuls of bacon fat; cook in it two tablespoonfuls of flour and a dash of paprica; add five tablespoonfuls of vinegar and half a cup of water; stir until boiling; then beat in the beaten yolks of two eggs, and a little salt if necessary. Do not allow the sauce to boil after the eggs are added. Add to salad after it has become thoroughly cold. Good with dandelion, endive, chicory, corn salad or lettuce.
Hollandaise Sauce.
Beat half a cup of butter to a cream; add the yolks of four eggs, one at a time, beating in each thoroughly; add one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of paprica or cayenne, and half a cup of boiling water. Cook over hot water until thick, adding gradually the juice of half a lemon. Chill before using. This is good, especially for a fish salad, in the place of mayonnaise.
Bernaise Sauce.
Use tarragon instead of plain vinegar, omit the water, with the exception of one tablespoonful, and the hollandaise becomes bernaise sauce. Oil may be used in the place of butter. The sauce resembles a firm mayonnaise, and, as it keeps its shape well, is particularly adapted for garnishing with pastry bag and tube.
VEGETABLE SALADS SERVED WITH FRENCH DRESSING.
"Bestrewed with lettuce and cool salad herbs."
Lettuce Salad.
Wash and drain the lettuce leaves; toss lightly, so as to remove every drop of water. Sprinkle them with oil, a few drops at a time, tossing the leaves about with spoon and fork after each addition. When each leaf glistens with oil (there should be no oil in the bottom of the bowl) shake over them a few drops of vinegar, then dust with salt and freshly ground pepper. The cutting of lettuce is considered a culinary sin; but, when the straight-leaved lettuce, or the Romaine, is to be used, better effects, at least as far as appearance is concerned, will be produced, if the lettuce be cut into ribbons. To do this, wash the lettuce carefully, without removing the leaves from the stem; fold together across the centre, and with a sharp, thin knife cut into ribbons less than half an inch in width.
Endive Salad.
Prepare as lettuce salad, first rubbing over the bowl with a clove of garlic cut in halves. A few sprigs of chives, chopped fine, are exceedingly palatable, sprinkled over a lettuce, endive, string-bean, or other bean salad.
A Few Combinations.
Dress each vegetable separately with the dressing; then arrange upon the serving-dish. Or, have the salad arranged upon the serving-dish and pour the dressing over all; then toss together and serve. About three tablespoonfuls of oil, with other ingredients in accordance, will be needed for one pint of vegetable.
1. Lettuce, tomatoes cut in halves, sprinkled with powdered tarragon, and parsley or chives.
2. Lettuce, moulded spinach and fine-chopped beets.
3. Lettuce, Boston baked beans and chives.
4. Lettuce and peppergrass.
5. Lettuce, shredded sweet peppers or pimentos, and sliced pecan nuts or almonds.
6. Lettuce, tomatoes stuffed with peas or string beans cut small, and chives chopped fine.
7. Lettuce, asparagus tips and sliced radishes. Arrange the lettuce at the edge of dish, inside a ring of radishes sliced thin, without removing the red skins; centre of asparagus tips, with radish cut to resemble a flower.
8. Lettuce, shredded tomatoes and shredded green peppers.
9. Shredded lettuce, English walnuts, and almonds or cooked chestnuts, sliced.
10. Lettuce, Neufchatel cheese in slices and shredded pimentos.
11. Lettuce, cauliflower, string beans and shredded pimentos.
12. Lettuce or cress, artichoke slices and powdered tarragon.
13. Shredded cabbage and shredded green peppers.
14. Cauliflower broken into flowerets, string beans cut into small pieces, and beets cut in fancy shapes or chopped. Arrange each vegetable in a mass by itself; surround with lettuce.
15. Cucumbers and new onions, sliced.
16. Watercress, diced boiled beets, and olives in centre.
17. Lettuce, Brussels sprouts and chopped pepper.
Lentil Salad.
Soak the lentils over night; wash and rinse thoroughly, then cook until tender, adding hot water as needed. Drain, and when cold mix with each pint of lentils about five tablespoonfuls of oil, two tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar and one teaspoonful, each, of capers, parsley, chives and cucumber pickles, all, save the capers, chopped fine. Serve in a mound, on a bed of lettuce leaves. Garnish with heart leaves of lettuce at the top and sections of tomato, or diamonds of tomato jelly, at the base.
White-Bean Salad.
Toss one pint of white beans, cooked, with one tablespoonful of vinegar and three tablespoonfuls of oil, a little salt and a dash of cayenne or paprica. Arrange in a mound on a bed of shredded lettuce, and sprinkle with chives, parsley and pimentos, all finely chopped. Finish the top of the salad with a large pim-ola.
Potato Salad.
(MISS COHEN.)
INGREDIENTS.
3 cups of cold boiled potatoes, cut in cubes. 1 cup of pecan nuts, broken in pieces. 5 tablespoonfuls of oil. 1 tablespoonful of salt. 1/2 a teaspoonful of onion juice. A dash of cayenne. 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Watercress.
Method.—Mix the potatoes and nuts, add the oil and mix again; add the other seasonings, and, when well mixed, set aside in a cool place an hour or more. Remove the coarse stalks from two bunches of watercress that have been well washed and dried. Season with French dressing and arrange in a wreath about the edge of the salad.
Potato Salad.
(CARRIE M. DEARBORN.)
INGREDIENTS.
12 cold boiled potatoes. 4 cooked eggs. 2 small Bermuda onions. Chopped parsley. 1 saltspoonful of white pepper. 2 teaspoonfuls of salt. 6 tablespoonfuls, each, of oil and vinegar. 1/2 a teaspoonful of powdered sugar.
Method.—Cut the potatoes into dice and chop the eggs fine. Chop the onions, or slice them very thin. Sprinkle the potatoes, eggs and onions with the salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly. Pour the oil gradually over the mixture, stirring and tossing continually; lastly, mix with the other ingredients the vinegar, in which the sugar has been dissolved. Sprinkle chopped parsley over the top.
Potato Salad.
INGREDIENTS.
1 quart of cubes of cold boiled potatoes. 1-1/2 teaspoonfuls of salt. 1/4 a teaspoonful of paprica. 3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. 4 tablespoonfuls of oil. Capers, beets, whites and yolks of eggs, and lettuce.
Method.—To the potato cubes add the salt, pepper and oil, and mix thoroughly; add the vinegar and mix again. Pile the cubes in a mound in the salad-bowl. Mark out the surface of the mound into quarters with capers; fill in two opposite sections with chopped beet; use chopped whites of eggs in a third, and sifted yolks of eggs in the fourth section. Finish with a border of parsley.
Potato-and-Nasturtium Salad.
(E. J. MCKENZIE.)
INGREDIENTS.
1 quart of potatoes, cut in cubes. 1/2 a cup of chopped gherkins. 1 cup of tender nasturtium shoots, cut in bits. 2 tablespoonfuls of pickled nasturtium seeds. Onion juice or garlic. 6 tablespoonfuls of oil. 5 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. Salt and pepper. Chopped parsley.
Method.—Mix the potatoes, gherkins, nasturtium shoots and seeds in a bowl rubbed over with garlic; add the oil, vinegar and seasonings, and mix again. Pile in a mound on a serving-dish, dust with chopped parsley, and garnish with a wreath of nasturtium blossoms and leaves.
Stuffed Beets.
Boil new beets, of even size, until tender. Set aside for some hours, or over night, covered with vinegar. When ready to serve, rub off the skin, scoop out the centre of each to form a cup, and arrange the cups on lettuce leaves. For each five cups chop fine a cucumber. Make a French dressing of two tablespoonfuls of oil, half a tablespoonful (scant) of vinegar, one-fourth a teaspoonful, each, of paprica and salt. Stir the dressing into the cucumber and fill the beets with the mixture. Of the beet removed to form the cups, cut slices and stamp out from these stars or other fanciful shapes, and use to decorate the top of each cup.
Chopped radish, cress, olives or celery are all admissible for a filling.
Salad of Brussels Sprouts and Beets.
Soak the sprouts in salted water; then drain and cook in salted boiling water about fifteen minutes, or until tender; drain and cool. Dress with French dressing and pile in a mound. Finish the top with a fanciful-shaped figure cut from a slice of pickled beet, and place a wreath of cooked beet, chopped and seasoned with French dressing, about the whole.
Macedoine Salad.
Cut pieces of carrot and turnip one inch long and half an inch thick. Put over the fire in boiling water and bring quickly to the boiling-point; drain, cover with fresh water, and cook until tender; score the top of each piece and insert an asparagus point. Dip the pieces in a little melted gelatine and set alternately in a circle on the serving-dish. Have carrots cut in small cubes or straws, turnips and beet root the same, green string beans cut in small pieces, asparagus and peas, all cooked separately until tender. Mix with French dressing and dispose inside the circle. Each vegetable may be massed by itself, or all may be mixed together. Finish the top with half a dozen short stalks of asparagus.
Tomato-and-Onion Salad.
Peel and shred four tomatoes; slice thinly a very mild onion and separate into rings; dress freely with oil and tarragon vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. Serve on lettuce leaves, sprinkling the whole with fine-chopped parsley and green peppers.
Endive,-Tomato-and-Green-String-Bean Salad.
Dress the well-blanched stalks of a head of endive, three tomatoes, peeled, cut in halves and chilled, and a cup of cold cooked string beans, separately, with French dressing, using in the dressing tarragon vinegar and a few drops of onion juice; then arrange on a serving-dish.
Cucumber Salad.
(German style.)
Pare large cucumbers and cut them into thin slices; cut each slice round and round so as to form a long, narrow curling strip. Let these strips stand two hours in salted ice water, drain, and dry in a soft cloth. Serve with French dressing. Toss first in the oil, then add the condiments, and lastly the vinegar. Americans would prefer to omit the salt from the ice water, as it softens the cucumber.
Cucumber Salad for Fish Course.
With a handy slicer remove the outside rind from the cucumbers, cut in thin slices, and let stand in ice-water to chill. Wipe dry, and arrange the slices in the salad bowl in the form of a Greek cross. Make a French dressing, in the proportion of three tablespoonfuls of cider vinegar to six tablespoonfuls of oil, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a dash of paprica. Rub the inside of the salad bowl with the cut side of an onion before the salad is disposed in it.
Cooked Vegetable Salad.
Dress cooked kidney beans, peas, and balls cut from potatoes, each separately with French dressing, to which a few drops of onion juice have been added. Dispose upon a serving-dish and let stand in a cool place an hour or more. Garnish at serving with heart leaves of lettuce.
Potato Salad.
(German Style.)
INGREDIENTS.
1 quart of potato slices or cubes. About 1/2 a cup of beef broth. 1 teaspoonful of salt. 1/2 a teaspoonful of paprica. 8 tablespoonfuls of oil. 1 tablespoonful of grated onion. 2 hard boiled eggs. 4 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. 1 teaspoonful of mustard. 1 teaspoonful of sugar. Fine chopped parsley. (1 cup of mushrooms.)
Method.—Boil the potatoes without paring. German potatoes, which are waxy rather than mealy, may be procured in large cities especially for salads. Peel the potatoes and cut them while hot into slices or cubes; pour over them as much beef broth as they will readily absorb and sprinkle with the salt and pepper, the oil and onion; mix lightly and set aside for some hours. Then add the whites of the eggs chopped fine, the yolks passed through a sieve, and mix with the rest of the oil, stirred with the vinegar into the mustard and sugar. After disposing in the dish, sprinkle with the parsley. If mushrooms be at hand, simmer ten or fifteen minutes in broth, break in pieces, and add to the salad with the egg.
SALADS, LARGELY VEGETABLE, SERVED WITH MAYONNAISE, CREAM OR BOILED DRESSING.
Cauliflower Salad.
Soak the cauliflower in salted water an hour; cook in boiling salted water until tender; drain and chill, then sprinkle with French dressing and set aside for half an hour. Sever the flowerets partly from the stalk, but so as not to change their relative positions, and place on a serving-dish; put heart leaves of lettuce between the flowerets and about the base of the vegetable; pour a cup of mayonnaise dressing over the whole, and sprinkle with pimentos or fine-chopped parsley. In serving, separate the flowerets with a sharp knife.
Tomatoes Stuffed with Nuts and Celery.
Peel the tomatoes; cut out a circular piece at the stem end of each and scoop out the flesh so as to form cups. Chill thoroughly, then fill with English walnut or pecan meats, broken into pieces, and celery, cut into small pieces and mixed with mayonnaise. Serve on lettuce leaves.
Stuffed-Tomato Salad.
INGREDIENTS.
6 smooth, small-sized tomatoes. 6 tablespoonfuls of chicken, veal or tongue, cut fine. 6 tablespoonfuls of peas. 3 olives, chopped fine. 3 gherkins, chopped fine. 2 tablespoonfuls of capers. Salt and pepper. Mayonnaise dressing.
Method.—Remove a round piece from the stem end of the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds and centre. Chill thoroughly. When ready to serve, mix together the solid part removed from the tomatoes, cut fine, and the other ingredients; season to taste with salt and pepper, adding also mayonnaise to hold the mixture together. With this fill the tomatoes, put them in nests of lettuce or cress, and force a star of mayonnaise on the top of each tomato.
Tomato Salad, Horseradish Dressing.
Plunge the tomatoes, placed in a wire basket, into a kettle of hot water; remove at once and rub off the skin; chill thoroughly and cut in halves. Serve on lettuce leaves with a star of cream dressing, seasoned with grated horseradish, on the top of each slice.
Tomato-and-Sweetbread Salad.
Cook two sweetbreads as directed on another page, or braise with vegetables. Cool between two plates bearing a weight. When cold cut into slices and stamp into rounds of suitable size to use with slices of tomato. Cover the slices of sweetbread with chaud-froid sauce and decorate with fine-chopped parsley or sifted yolk of egg; pour over a little melted aspic. When the aspic is set, trim neatly, and arrange each round of sweetbread on a slice of chilled tomato. Serve inside a border of lettuce around a salad made of the trimmings of the sweetbreads and a cucumber cut in cubes and dressed with mayonnaise.
Cress,-Cucumber-and-Tomato Salad.
Wash the cress and shake dry; arrange as a bed on a serving-dish, discarding the coarse stems; above this make a smaller bed of cucumbers, cut in slices or dice and dressed with French dressing, using three tablespoonfuls of oil and one of vinegar or lemon juice to a pint of cucumber. Arrange peeled tomatoes, chilled and cut in pieces, upon the cucumbers. Serve with French, cream or mayonnaise dressing.
Tomatoes Stuffed with Cucumber.
Peel five tomatoes, cut off the stem ends and scoop out the pulp, thus forming cups; set, turned upside down, in a cool place. Chop fine the solid pulp from the tomatoes and one cucumber, chilled before chopping; stir into a cup of cream dressing and fill the tomatoes with the mixture. Salt and pepper will be needed in addition to that in the dressing. If at hand, a pimento may be chopped with the other ingredients, or two tablespoonfuls of grated horseradish may be used. Serve at once on lettuce leaves.
Tomatoes Stuffed with Jelly.
Chop one sweetbread and one cucumber fine. To each cup (solid and liquid) add one-fourth a teaspoonful, each, of salt and paprica, a few drops of onion juice and a tablespoonful of capers; add also half a tablespoonful of granulated gelatine, soaked in two or three tablespoonfuls of cold water and melted over hot water. Stir until the mixture begins to congeal, then fill into tomatoes prepared as above. Set aside on the ice for half an hour, at least; then serve on lettuce leaves with either mayonnaise, boiled or cream dressing. Calf's brains, chicken, veal, tongue or ham may be substituted for the sweetbread.
Tomatoes Farces a l'Aspic.
INGREDIENTS.
6 even-sized ripe tomatoes. 1 pint of aspic jelly. 1/2 a cup of lobster meat, chopped fine. 1 tablespoonful of capers. 2 yolks of hard-boiled eggs. Mayonnaise, parsley, lettuce.
Method.—Scoop out the centres of the tomatoes, after removing the skin, and chill thoroughly. Pass the yolks through a sieve, add to the lobster, with the capers, half a cup of mayonnaise and half a cup of chicken aspic, thick and cold, but not set; stir these in a dish standing in ice water until nearly set; then fill the cavities in the tomatoes with the mixture. Brush over the outside of the tomatoes with half-set aspic; when the aspic is set, repeat twice, then set aside on ice for some time before serving. Serve on a bed of lettuce seasoned with French dressing. Garnish each tomato with a sprig of parsley and the salad-dish with blocks of aspic. Anchovies or any cooked fish may be substituted for the lobster. Serve with mayonnaise.
Tomato Jelly.
Soak three-fourths a box of gelatine in half a cup of cold water. Cook a can of tomatoes, half an onion, a stalk of celery, a bay leaf, two cloves, a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of paprica ten minutes. Add two tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar and the gelatine, stir till dissolved, strain, and mould in a ring mould. When cold turn from the mould and fill the centre with
CELERY-AND-NUT SALAD.
Cut fine tender stalks of celery and English walnuts and mix with French dressing. Garnish the centre of the salad and the border of the jelly with tender leaves of lettuce and bits of curled celery.
Tomato-Jelly Salad, No. 2.
Make the jelly and mould as before. Fill in the centre of the ring with shredded cabbage, pimentos and pecan nuts, mixed with boiled dressing.
Tomato Jelly with String Beans.
Cook tiny string beans until tender in boiling salted water; season while hot with onion juice, salt, pepper and tarragon vinegar. When cold add oil and toss the beans about until each bean is coated with the oil. Fill the centre of the jelly, fashioned in a ring mould, with the beans, and sprinkle over them a fine-chopped pimento. Garnish with lettuce leaves. Fine-chopped chives may be used in the place of the onion juice; they are particularly appropriate in any bean salad. If the beans are large, cut in halves lengthwise and the halves crosswise.
Tomato jelly may be served in a ring mould with turkey, oyster, plain chicken, French chicken, and other salads. The oysters should be scalded and drained, then marinated with French dressing. Chicken and turkey should also be marinated before mixing with celery and the mayonnaise or boiled dressing.
Tomato-and-Artichoke Salad.
(MRS. E. M. LUCAS, IN BOSTON COOKING-SCHOOL MAGAZINE.)
Choose medium-sized tomatoes, firm and smooth skinned. Peel them, cut a slice from the stem end and remove the seeds with a small spoon. Sprinkle the interior of these cups with salt and set on ice. When ready to serve, wipe them dry and fill with artichokes cut into dice and mixed with mayonnaise. Serve on lettuce leaves. Use tarragon vinegar in preparing the dressing. Cook the artichoke hearts until just tender,—no longer,—in salted boiling water, then drain and cool.
Artichoke Salad.
(For game.)
(MRS. E. M. LUCAS, IN BOSTON COOKING-SCHOOL MAGAZINE.)
Peel three oranges, remove the pith and white skin and slice lengthwise; use an equal amount of tender blanched celery stalks cut into inch lengths. Mix together lightly with two tablespoonfuls of olive oil, one tablespoonful of lemon juice, half a teaspoonful of salt and a quarter a teaspoonful of paprica. Heap together lightly on a serving-dish and surround with cooked hearts of artichokes cut into quarters; wreathe with blanched celery leaves.
Artichoke Salad.
(Used as a border for shrimp, lobster, chicken and other salads.)
(MRS. E. M. LUCAS, IN BOSTON COOKING-SCHOOL MAGAZINE.)
Cut boiled artichokes into quarter-inch slices and stamp out with a French vegetable cutter. To half a pint add one tablespoonful of olive oil, half a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar and one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt; toss lightly together and let stand one hour; drain, and arrange as a border with an outer layer of tiny blanched lettuce leaves.
2. Scoop out the centres of the artichokes and fill with mayonnaise, or with ravigote, tartare or tyrolienne sauce. Serve on lettuce leaves as a border to a meat or fish salad.
3. Fill the centres with walnut meats, sliced, or tender celery stalks, cut fine and mixed with mayonnaise.
Asparagus Salad.
Cut cold cooked asparagus into pieces an inch long, mix lightly with cream dressing and serve, in individual portions, on curly lettuce leaves.
Asparagus-and-Salmon Salad.
Mix cold cooked salmon with mayonnaise, form in a mound and encircle with a wreath of cold cooked asparagus tips dressed with French dressing.
Asparagus-and-Cauliflower Salad.
Break the cooked cauliflower into its flowerets, dispose in the centre of the serving-dish and surround with a wreath of cooked asparagus tips. Pour over the whole a mayonnaise, a boiled or a cream dressing, and sprinkle with chopped capers or pimentos.
Salad of Turnips with Asparagus Tips.
Cook the turnips in boiling salted water until tender; drain, and cut out the centres, forming cups. Sprinkle the inside with oil and a few grains of salt, and, when the oil is absorbed, pour over the cups a little lemon juice or vinegar. Set aside to become cool. When ready to serve, arrange the cups on shredded lettuce and fill with cooked asparagus tips, cold and mixed with mayonnaise or French dressing, as desired. Peas, flageolets or wax beans, cut fine, may be used instead of the asparagus. Garnish with radishes.
Green-Pea Salad.
Mix the peas with a cream dressing; serve in nests of lettuce; garnish the top of each nest with a little chopped beet, or a fanciful figure cut from a pickled beet or pimento.
Green-Pea-and-Potato Salad.
Mix equal parts of cold cooked peas and potatoes cut in very small cubes; season with salt and pepper, and serve as green-pea salad.
Asparagus Salad.
Scrape the scales from the stalks, and cook, standing upright in boiling salted water, until tender; drain and chill thoroughly. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing. Garnish the lettuce with hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters lengthwise.
Macedoine of Vegetable Salad.
Dress one cup, each, of cooked carrots and turnips, cut in dice, string beans, cut small, green peas, and half a cup of cooked beets, cut small, with French dressing; add two tablespoonfuls of chopped gherkins; drain, and mix with sufficient jelly mayonnaise to hold the vegetables together. Arrange in dome shape and cover with more jelly mayonnaise. Set a row of sliced gherkins near the top, and fill in the space to the top with string beans or asparagus tips. Surround the base with alternate rounds of beet and potato overlapping one another. Decorate the space above with slices of potato and beet cut in diamonds, and surround the base with light-green aspic cut in diamonds. One pint of aspic will be sufficient; use chicken stock, and tint with color paste.
Russian Vegetable Salad.
Select two moulds of suitable shape and size (tin basins or earthen bowls will do) and chill in ice water. Have ready cooked balls, cut from carrots and turnips, and cooked string beans and cauliflower, all marinated with French dressing. Drain the vegetables, dip them into half-set aspic, and arrange against the chilled sides of the moulds; then fill the moulds with aspic jelly. When set, with a hot spoon scoop out the aspic from the centre of each mould and fill in the space with a mixture of the vegetables and jelly mayonnaise, leaving an open space at the top to be filled with half-set aspic. When thoroughly chilled and set, turn from the moulds, the smaller mould above the other. Garnish with flowerets of cauliflower, dipped in aspic and chilled, and lettuce. Serve with mayonnaise.
Stuffed-Cucumber Salad.
Pare a short cucumber and cut it lengthwise in two parts; remove the seeds and let chill in ice water for an hour. Chop together the solid part of a peeled and seeded tomato, half a slice of new onion, a stalk of celery and a sprig of parsley; mix with mayonnaise or a boiled dressing and use as a filling for the well-dried halves of cucumber. Serve on cress or lettuce.
Cowslip-and-Cream-Cheese Salad.
(See cut facing page 58.)
Cook the cowslip leaves until tender in boiling salted water, reserving a few choice leaves with blossoms for a garnish. Chop fine, season to taste with salt and paprica, press into a mould, and set aside to become chilled. Slice chilled cream cheese (Neufchatel or cottage) in uniform slices, and arrange at the sides of the mound. Serve with French or mayonnaise dressing.
Cauliflower Salad, Egg Garnish.
Separate a cauliflower into flowerets and boil in salted water until tender, not longer. Drain carefully. Season with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of chopped tarragon leaves (or use tarragon vinegar). Arrange symmetrically in an earthen bowl, having the upper surface level. Let stand to become thoroughly chilled, then turn on to a serving-dish; the shape of the mould will be retained. Cover with mayonnaise dressing or Sauce Tartare, and surround with lengthwise quarters of hard-boiled eggs.
Potato Salad with Mayonnaise.
Boil the potatoes and let cool without paring. Then remove the skins and cut into slices, balls, or cubes. Squeeze over them a little onion juice, sprinkle with fine-chopped parsley, and let stand in a French dressing several hours. Mix the dressing after the usual formula, and use enough to moisten well the potato. When ready to serve, make nests of heart leaves of lettuce, put a spoonful of the potato in each, with a teaspoonful of mayonnaise above, sprinkle the mayonnaise with capers, and press the quarter of a hard-boiled egg into the top of the mayonnaise. Or add the chopped white of egg to the potato before marinating, and sift the yolk over the mayonnaise.
FISH SALADS.
"Some choice sous'd fish brought couchant in a dish, Among some fennel."
"Of what complexion? Of the sea water green, sir."
FISH SALADS.
Ever, and justly, fish have taken high rank in the list of salad ingredients. No wonder, when we consider that nothing excels in delicacy of flavor many a variety of fish; and, while fish are not necessarily expensive in any locality, in many sections of the country their cost is merely nominal. Then, too, salad-making appeals largely to one's artistic nature, and the products of sea and fresh water are constantly furnishing opportunities for studies in many and varied shades of color. The lobster's vivid red, the brilliant tints of the salmon and red snapper, the delicate pink of shrimps, the dull white of scallops and halibut, and the bluish gray of mackerel and bluefish, each, in its season, may be made to contrast most effectively with fresh green herbs and yellow dressings.
Oysters, scallops and little-neck clams are frequently served in salads without cooking. These should be carefully washed, then drained and set aside in a marinade for an hour. When cooked, they should be heated to the boiling-point in their own liquor, then drained and cut in halves. The adductor muscle of the oyster—the white, button-shaped part that connects the animal with its shell—is often discarded. Other fish than shellfish, when used in salads, are boiled, broiled or baked; they present the best appearance, however, when boiled. Thudichum recommends sea water, whenever it is available, for boiling fish; lacking this, hot water, salted (an ounce of salt to a quart of water), and acidulated pleasantly with lemon juice or vinegar, is the proper medium of cooking. The addition of a slice or two of onion and carrot, a sprig of parsley, a stalk of celery, with aromatic herbs or spices, provided they be not used so freely as to overpower the delicate savor of the fish, is thought to improve the dish.
The quantity of water should be adjusted to the size of the fish; in no case should it be larger than will suffice to produce the desired result. At the moment the fish is immersed in the water the temperature should be at the boiling-point, and thereafter the vessel should be permitted to simmer during the process of cooking.
The fish may be cooked whole, or cut into small pieces, similar in shape and size. In the latter case a wire basket is of service, as, by this means, the fish may be easily removed from the water and drained. If the fish is to be served whole, remove the skin and fins, and, when thoroughly cold, mask with jelly mayonnaise or with a fancy butter. After chilling again, the mask may be decorated with capers, olives, eggs, etc. If the fish is to be used in flakes, the flakes will separate more easily while the fish is still hot. In marinating fish, let the proportions of oil and acid vary with the kind of fish; i.e., according to the oily nature of the flesh.
RECIPES.
Brook-Trout Salad.
Dress the trout without removing the heads; boil as previously indicated. Remove the backbone without destroying the shape of the fish. Serve, thoroughly chilled, on crisp lettuce leaves dressed with claret or French dressing. Prepare the latter with tarragon vinegar.
Brook Trout Moulded in Aspic.
Pour a little chicken aspic into a pickle or other dish of suitable shape and size for a single fish; when nearly set, lay a trout, prepared as above, upon the aspic, add a few spoonfuls of aspic, let it harden so that the fish may become fixed in place, then add aspic to cover. Slices of cucumber pickles, capers, or other ornaments, may be used. When the aspic is thoroughly set and chilled, remove from the mould and serve on two lettuce leaves, with any dressing desired.
Halibut Salad.
Flake the fish and marinate with French dressing (three tablespoonfuls of oil, one tablespoonful of lemon juice or vinegar, a dash of salt and pepper, for each pint of fish); drain, and add half as much boiled potato, cut in small cubes and dressed with French dressing. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves. Garnish with sardine dressing. Shredded lettuce or peas may be used in place of the potato.
Halibut-and-Cucumber Salad.
INGREDIENTS.
1 pound of cooked halibut. 2 tablespoonfuls of oil. 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice. A few drops of onion juice. Salt and pepper. 2 pimentos. Lettuce. Cucumbers. French dressing.
Method.—Flake one pound of cooked halibut while hot, and marinate with the oil, lemon juice, onion juice, salt and pepper. When cold drain and mix with the pimentos, shredded, after cutting from the same a few star-shaped or other fanciful figures. Arrange heart leaves of lettuce in an upright position in the centre of a serving-dish, the fish and pimentos around the lettuce, and, around these, one large or two small cucumbers, cut in small cubes and mixed with French dressing. With salmon use capers instead of pimentos. Use enough dressing to moisten the cucumbers thoroughly.
Halibut Salad.
Steam a thick slice of chicken halibut, until the flesh separates easily from the bone. Remove the skin and bones without disturbing the shape of the fish. Marinate, while hot, with three tablespoonfuls of oil, one tablespoonful of vinegar or lemon juice, and salt and pepper. When cold put the fish on a serving-dish, and, using endive or Boston Market lettuce, put the ends of the leaves beneath the fish, so that the tops of the leaves will fall over upon the fish. Garnish the top with stars of mayonnaise. Between the leaves dispose sliced pim-olas and fans cut from small gherkins. Serve mayonnaise with the salad.
Fillets of Halibut in Aspic, with Cucumber-and-Radish Salad.
INGREDIENTS.
2 slices of halibut, cut half an inch or less in thickness. 1 lobster (a pound and a half). 3 tablespoonfuls of butter. 1/4 a cup of flour. 1/4 a cup of cream. 1/4 a cup of stock. A dash of paprica. 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice. 1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley. 1/4 a tablespoonful of salt. 1 quart of aspic. Olives. A bunch of radishes. 2 cucumbers. French dressing.
Method.—Remove the skin and bone from the halibut, thus securing eight fillets. Season with salt, pepper, onion and lemon juice. Chop the lobster meat fine; melt the butter, cook in it the flour and seasonings, add the cream and lobster stock, and, when cooked, stir in the chopped lobster. When cool spread upon one side of the fillets, roll up the fillets and fasten with wooden toothpicks that have been dipped in melted butter. Bake on a fish-sheet about fifteen minutes, basting with butter melted in hot water.
Set a plain border-mould in ice water; decorate the bottom and sides with pim-olas or gherkins cut in slices and dipped in half-set aspic; cover the decoration on the bottom with aspic, and, when set and the decorations on the side are "fixed" in place, arrange on the aspic the cold fillets of fish and fill the mould with more aspic. When cold turn from the mould and fill the centre with diced cucumbers and sliced radishes dressed with French dressing. Pass mayonnaise or French dressing in a separate dish. Surround the aspic with shredded lettuce if desired.
Fillets of Halibut in Aspic with Cole-Slaw.
Use a generous half-pint of oysters in the place of the lobster, parboiling and draining before chopping, and fill in the centre of the aspic with coleslaw.
Miroton of Fish and Potato.
Marinate one pint of cold cooked fish—salmon, cod, haddock, halibut, etc.—with three or four tablespoonfuls of oil, half a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper and two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice. Marinate, separately, one pint of cold potatoes, cooked in their skins and cut in cubes, with the same quantity of dressing, adding also one teaspoonful of onion juice. Let stand in a cool place one hour or more. Have ready six hard-boiled eggs; cut a thin slice from the round end of each egg, that it may stand upright, then cut in quarters lengthwise. Dip into a little aspic jelly or melted gelatine and arrange the quarters in the form of a circle, with the yolks outside. Toss together the fish, potato and three tablespoonfuls of capers, and fill in the centre of the circle. Dust with fine-chopped parsley or beets; add a tuft of lettuce at the top and a few heart leaves of lettuce above the crown of eggs.
Fish Salad Moulded in Aspic.
Cover the bottom of a mould with aspic to the depth of one-fourth an inch. Set the mould in ice water, and, when the aspic is set, arrange upon it a decoration of cooked vegetables cut in shapes with French cutter, or fashion a conventional design or some flower. Dogwood blossoms provide a simple pattern, and one easily carried out. Cut the four petals from a thin slice of cooked turnip and the centre of the blossom from carrot or lemon peel. Fasten each piece in place with liquid jelly, and, when set, cover with more jelly. To decorate the sides of the mould, take the figures on the point of a skewer, dip in jelly, then set in position against the chilled sides of the mould, and they will remain in place. After the jelly covering the figures on the bottom of the mould has "set," place a smaller mould in the centre of the aspic in the first, and fill this with ice and water. Pour in aspic to fill the space about the smaller mould, and, when this aspic is firm, dip out the water and ice. Fill with warm water and quickly remove the mould. Separate a pound of cooked fish into flakes, add half a cup of cold cooked peas, three or four gherkins, cut very fine, and three tablespoonfuls of capers. Mix together and then mix with one cup of mayonnaise made with jelly; with this fill the vacant space in the mould. When ready to serve, dip the mould very quickly into warm water, letting the water rise to the top of the mould, and invert over a serving-dish; remove the mould, and garnish with lettuce, tiny gherkins cut to resemble fans, blocks of aspic, or aspic moulded in shells, and mayonnaise.
Fish Salad Moulded in Aspic, No. 2.
Decorate the mould as before; then put in a layer of the fish and dressing; when set, add a layer of aspic; alternate the layers until the materials are used or the mould is filled. Individual moulds may be prepared in the same way.
Salad of Mackerel or Bluefish.
Separate a cooked fish into flakes and mix with the chopped whites and sifted yolks of three hard-boiled eggs. Season with French dressing, mix lightly and turn on to a bed of lettuce or cress, also seasoned with the dressing. Garnish with fans cut from small gherkins, or with pickled beet cut in fanciful shape or chopped.
Salad of Salt Mackerel.
Freshen the fish carefully before cooking. Use equal parts of fish, flaked, and cold boiled potatoes. If potatoes are specially prepared for the purpose, cut them in cubes or balls, blanch, and cook in well-seasoned beef stock; drain, and add, when cold, to the fish. Season with French dressing. Arrange on a bed of cress and sift the yolk of an egg over the whole.
Salad of Shad Roe and Cucumber.
Cook two shad roes with an onion, sliced, and a bay leaf, in salted, acidulated water twenty minutes; drain, and marinate with about two tablespoonfuls of oil, one tablespoonful of lemon juice and a dash of pepper and salt. When cold cut in small cubes. Rub the salad-bowl with a clove of garlic cut in halves. Cut a thoroughly chilled cucumber in dice; put the cucumber on a bed of lettuce leaves in the bottom of the bowl, and the roe, well drained, above; mask with mayonnaise,—nearly a cup will be required,—in the top insert a few heart leaves of lettuce, and place around the centre of the mound a circle of cucumber slices overlapping one another; or alternate these with lozenges cut from pickled beet.
Boudins-de-Saumon Salad.
Butter four small dariole moulds, or small cups; sprinkle the butter with chopped parsley. Select four small pieces of cooked salmon, dry on a soft cloth so as to remove all oily liquor, and put a piece in each mould. Beat two eggs (or, better, one egg and the yolks of two) slightly, season with one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of paprica and a few drops of anchovy essence or onion juice; add half a cup of milk, and, when well mixed, pour into the moulds around the fish. Set the moulds in a pan of hot water and bake until the custard is set. Do not let the water boil. Chill thoroughly, then turn from the moulds on to lettuce leaves. Serve with a star of mayonnaise dressing on the top of each boudin.
Russian Salad.
(BOSTON COOKING-SCHOOL.)
INGREDIENTS.
1 cup of carrots. 1 cup of potatoes. 1 cup of peas. 1 cup of beans (flageolets preferred). 6 tablespoonfuls of oil. 3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. 1 teaspoonful of salt. 1/4 a teaspoonful of pepper. A head of lettuce. 1 cup of mayonnaise. 1 cup of shrimps. 1/4 a lb. of smoked salmon. 1 hard-boiled egg.
Method.—Marinate the carrots and potatoes, cut in small pieces, also the peas and beans, with French dressing. Arrange on a dish in four sections, having lettuce for the foundation of each. Cover each vegetable with mayonnaise. Strew the tops of two sections with small pieces of smoked salmon; on a third section strew the sifted yolk of the egg, and on the fourth, the white of the egg, cut rather coarsely. Outline the inner side of each section with shrimps, by lightly pressing the ends of the shrimps into the mayonnaise. Finish with a tuft of lettuce in the centre of the dish.
Spanish Salad.
In the centre of a flat serving-dish arrange a mound of endive. Peel tomatoes, divide into sections or cut in slices, and arrange these around the endive. Shell cold, hard-boiled eggs; cut in halves, crosswise, and in points; remove the yolks and pound to a paste with an equal amount of the flesh of lobster, shrimp, anchovies or salmon. With this paste, seasoned to taste with oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, fill the cups fashioned from the whites of the eggs, and arrange them around the tomatoes. Strew chopped shallot and sweet pepper over the endive. Mix equal portions of oil and vinegar, add salt and pepper to taste, and pour over the salad. Serve at once.
Salmon Salad.
(For evening company, or fish course at a dinner party.)
INGREDIENTS.
Hard-boiled eggs. 1 teaspoonful of gelatine, softened in one tablespoonful of cold water. 1 pint of string beans or asparagus tips. 1 pint of cooked peas. French dressing. 2 slices of salmon, 2 inches thick. Jelly mayonnaise, or fancy butter. Capers.
Method.—Cut the eggs into halves lengthwise; cut a thin slice from the round ends, that the pieces may be set upright; dip lightly in the gelatine dissolved over hot water, and arrange miroton fashion around an oval serving-dish. Set aside, that the eggs may become fixed in position. Marinate the vegetables, separately, with French dressing; cook the salmon by the directions previously given; remove the skin and cover the sides with jelly mayonnaise or fancy butter. When cold decorate with whites of eggs and capers. Use the trimmings from the eggs, and fix them in place by dipping in jelly mayonnaise. Set aside for the decorations to become fixed. Drain the vegetables and arrange inside the border, higher in the centre. Lay the decorated slices of fish upon opposite sides of the mound, and serve either with or without mayonnaise.
Halibut Salad.
(For evening company, or fish course at a dinner party.)
INGREDIENTS.
A slice of chicken halibut, 3 inches thick. 3 cups of cooked peas. French dressing. Hard-boiled eggs. 3 slices of pickled beet. 1 teaspoonful of gelatine. Jelly mayonnaise, or green butter. Heart leaves of lettuce. 2 olives.
Method.—Prepare the eggs and fasten to the plate as in salmon salad. Dip diamond-shaped pieces of pickled beet in the dissolved gelatine and place upon the front and top of each half of egg. Spread the edge of the fish, after removing the skin, with jelly mayonnaise, or green butter, and, when set, decorate with figures cut from the cooked white of an egg. With forcing-bag and tube shape a pattern around the upper edge of the fish. Place the fish in the centre of the crown or miroton of eggs, with the peas seasoned with French dressing around it; cover the place from which the bone was taken with the centre of a head of lettuce, cut in halves, and two fine olives. Serve with a bowl of mayonnaise.
Shells of Fish and Mushrooms.
Cut cold fish—salmon, halibut, lobster, etc.—into small cubes, mix with one-third in measure of cooked mushrooms, also cut small, and add for each cup of mushrooms and fish one tablespoonful of gherkins cut fine. Season with French dressing and let stand one hour; then drain, and mix with jellied mayonnaise. Fill chilled shells with this preparation, rounding it on the top. Make smooth, and mask with jellied mayonnaise. Decorate with gherkins and the white of a hard-boiled egg cut in fanciful shapes, and with stars of mayonnaise.
Oysters in Aspic Jelly.
Parboil, drain, cool, and wipe dry one quart of oysters. Make a pint of mayonnaise sauce with aspic jelly and coat the well-dried oysters with the sauce. Prepare a quart of chicken aspic. Dip in half-set aspic the white of egg, poached and cut in fanciful shapes, and small gherkins cut in thin slices, and decorate the bottom and sides of a charlotte or cylindrical mould standing in ice water. Pour in jelly to the depth of half an inch; when set, arrange the oysters on it in a circle, one overlapping another; pour in more jelly, and, when set, dispose upon it another circle of oysters. Continue this order until the mould is filled. When removed from the mould, garnish with chopped aspic and fans cut from gherkins and lettuce. Serve with the remainder of the pint of mayonnaise.
Oyster-and-Celery Salad.
Parboil the oysters (heating them to the boiling-point in their own liquor), drain, and, if large, halve each; marinate with a French dressing (i.e., toss the bits of oyster in oil enough to coat them nicely; then toss them in a little lemon juice, dust with salt and pepper, and set aside to become thoroughly chilled). When ready to serve, drain again and add about one-third as much in bulk of fine-chopped celery and one or two tablespoonfuls of pickled nasturtium seeds or capers; then mix with mayonnaise or a boiled dressing. Serve on a bed of lettuce leaves. Cabbage, sliced as for slaw, may be used in the place of celery. Garnish with small pickles cut in thin slices and spread to resemble a fan.
Oyster-and-Sweetbread Salad.
Cut a pair of cold cooked sweetbreads into cubes. Parboil one pint of oysters, drain, cool, and cut in halves; marinate the sweetbreads and oysters with French dressing, and allow them to stand at least half an hour; drain, mix with mayonnaise, and serve on a bed of lettuce or cress. Or, surround with a circle of chopped cucumbers seasoned with French dressing.
Shrimp Salad in Cucumber Boats.
Pare the cucumbers, which should be rather short, and cut them in halves lengthwise; remove the seeds and steam until tender; chill, and arrange on lettuce leaves, or on a bed of watercress. Clean and marinate the shrimps. If large, divide into two or three pieces. Mix with mayonnaise and place in the cucumbers. Decorate with stars of mayonnaise and whole shrimps.
Shrimp Salad with Aspic Border.
Set a border mould in ice water; dip hard-boiled eggs, cut in halves lengthwise and trimmed to fit the mould, in aspic jelly, and press against the sides of the mould alternately with small vegetable balls, or peas dipped in half-set aspic; fill gradually the empty space in the mould with partly cooled jelly, adding vegetables here and there if desired. Dip in hot water and turn from the mould. Fill in the centre with lettuce, torn in pieces, and one pint of shrimps, broken in pieces and dressed with French dressing. Smooth the mound and mask with jelly mayonnaise. Decorate with shrimps and small heart leaves of lettuce.
Shrimp Salad with Aspic Border, No. 2.
Decorate the sides of a ring mould, chilled, with hard-boiled eggs cut in halves, alternated with hearts of lettuce cut in halves; dip the egg and lettuce in half-set aspic, and they will adhere to the sides of the mould. Then proceed as above.
Shrimp Salad.
Take the shrimps from the shells, reserve the most perfect for garnishing, and break the others into pieces; marinate with French dressing. When ready to serve, drain, and mix with shredded lettuce, or celery cut fine, and mayonnaise. Shape in a mound on a bed of lettuce leaves and mask with mayonnaise. Use capers or olives, chopped very fine, to mark out five or six designs on the mound; a scroll effect is always pretty. Fill in the designs with shrimps and the rest of the mound with capers, sifted yolks or chopped whites of cooked eggs; or fill the designs with the capers or eggs and the rest of the mound with shrimps. Finish with a tuft of lettuce at the top.
Scallop Salad.
Soak the scallops in salted water (a tablespoonful of salt to a quart of water) one hour; rinse in cold water, cover with boiling water, and let simmer five or six minutes. Rinse again in cold water, drain, and when cold cut into slices. Cut white stalks of celery into small pieces. Mix the celery and scallops—half as much celery as scallops—with mayonnaise or boiled dressing, and shape in a mound. Mask the mound with a thin coating of mayonnaise. With large-sized capers outline a design on each of the four sides of the mound, fill these with whites of eggs, cooked and chopped fine. Ornament with figures cut from slices of boiled beets. Fill in the spaces around the designs with capers, and garnish with green celery leaves and white stalks of celery, fringed.
Sardine Salad.
Lay the sardines upon soft paper, that they may be freed from oil. Scrape off the skin and remove the bones; squeeze over them a little lemon juice. Arrange upon a bed of crisp lettuce leaves, or upon shredded lettuce, and dress with either French or mayonnaise dressing. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut in slices.
Sardine Salad, No. 2.
Arrange a pint of cold cooked fish, flaked, on a bed of lettuce leaves and cover with sardine dressing. Carefully split six selected sardines; remove the bones and arrange the halves on the top of the salad, with the heads at the centre. Garnish with slices of lemon.
Sardine-and-Egg Salad.
Skin and bone a dozen sardines and put them in a mortar; remove the shells from an equal number of hard-boiled eggs and cut them into halves crosswise, so as to form cups with pointed edges; put the yolks into the mortar with the sardines, add a tablespoonful, or less, of chopped parsley, a dash of pepper and salt, and work to a smooth paste; moisten with salad dressing and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cut a thin slice from the ends of the egg cups, that they may be set upright on the serving-dish, and fill with the mixture, making it round on the top like a whole yolk. Arrange these on a bed of watercress, or shredded lettuce, and sprinkle plentifully with French dressing. |
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