A book of salads : the art of salad dressing

Front matter

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Med

V

Chapter I. Green Salads (Herbaceous Plants) Chapter II

Vegetable Salads (Leguminous Plants) Chapter III.

Meat, Poultry and Game Salads Chapter IV.

Fish Salads

Chapter V.

Fruit Salads

Chapter VI.

Salad Sauces and Dressings ... Chapter VII.

Oil, Vinegar and Condiments ...

PAGE

vii.

I

... 74 professional Books.

By C. HERMAN SENN.

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V.

Preface

There need be no apology for offering a book on salads, because few manuals are in existence which deal exclusively with this important section of the culinary art.

Salads are recognised as an indispensable course for any lunch or dinner, and for the sake of health some kind of salad ought to form an item in every family menu throughout the year.

Such being the case, it is well to have a pleasing variety of reliable combinations at one’s command.

To many persons, the word “ salad ” represents but a very limited opportunity, and yet every month of the year practically brings in some kind of material wherewith a delicious salad can be made. Salad making is not as a rule classed as an art, inasmuch as everybody thinks he or she can make a salad, but there is, I venture to assert, a great difference between a well dressed salad and the dishes one meets with at times, which are given that name.

This book of recipes is the most complete work of its kind I have as yet seen, and considering the fact that Mons. A. Suzanne is one of the most renowned chefs of the present day, this manual should find its way into thousands of kitchens.

Every recipe given reflects the genius of a masterhand in the art of making salads.

VI.

The reception accorded to Monsieur Suzanne’s L'Art de Treparer et d' Accommoder Us Salades, of which the present work is a translation by A. M. Garance, has been very flattering, and justly so, because it is a work on a popular subject, and supplies a want felt by every maitre d'hdiel, cook, and housekeeper.

The various chapters on salads contained in this book give a number of new salad combinations, and include many which have recently been introduced.

The Spanish proverb as illustrated on the front of book is full of meaning to the salad mixer. It runs : —

To make a perfect salad four persons are needed. There should be a miser for the vinegar, a spendthrift for the oil, a wise man for the salt, and a mad-cap to stir up the ingredients and mix them well.

It would, however, be more correct to say that a patient, discreet, painstaking, and careful man or woman should perform the seasoning and mixing of a salad, since the French say, II faui bien fatiguer la salade.

C. Herman Senn.

IxDNDON, June, igo3.

Vll.

Introduction

Under the generic name of salad we include all foods seasoned with oil, vinegar, pepper, salt, and various other condiments. The same name is applied illogically in the opinion of the purists to mixtures of fruit with sugar, spices, and liqueurs.

Salads may be arranged in six distinct classes : —

1. Green salads (herbaceous plants).

2. Other vegetable salads (leguminous

plants).

3. Fish salads.

4. Poultry and game salads.

5. Meat salads.

6. Fruit salads.

Salad, no matter of what class, is liked by everybody. Its presence at any meal is welcome, and it is looked upon as a wholesome and refreshing food, and at the , same time as a powerful aid to digestion.

In nearly all European languages the word is practically the same. It is “ salade ” in F rench, “ insalada ” in Italian, Salat ” in German, “ salate ” in Russian, and “ ensalada ” in Spanish.

Etymologically, salad is derived from the Latin “ sal,” salt, as in classic times it appears that this was the only condiment employed.

Salad was in favour in the reign of Louis XIV. Boileau, in satirical verse, describes

Vlll, a bad dinner at which two salads were served, one of yellow purslane, the other of wilted green stuff, both smelling of rancid oil and swimming in strong vinegar.

This shows that then as now the quality of the oil and vinegar used was considered of first importance. But the excellence of these is not the only requisite for a good salad, the other flavouring ingredients must be in correct proportion and skilfully added.

A salad at dinner is a necessity, almost a passion with some people; the craving v'

for it may be compared to that of an inveterate smoker for his pipe, of English women for tea, and the Chinese for opium. ^

Of the large number of green plants that T

may be eaten as salad the principal are lettuce, chicory, watercress, barie f.

(blanched dandelion — a species grown like (

celery), corn-salad, rampion, purslane, ft

dandelion, and endive. ■

In spite of the apparent homogeneity of R

these plants they differ essentially in taste ; E

each kind therefore requires special pre- ■

paration and seasoning. S

The leguminous vegetables that can be used in the form of salad are numerous.

The chief of these are white and green haricots, lentils, beetroot, celery, potatoes, salsify, cucumber, truffles, tomatoes, and carrots.

The fish used in salad are such as have a firm flesh ; for instance, salmon, turbot, sole, trout, mackerel, and tunny. But herrings and anchovies are used as flavourings.

Boiled and braised meat (beef, as a rule), poultry, and game can be served in the same way.

IX.

Every nation has its own way of preparing salad, and according to the custom of the country mixtures of cream, yolk of egg, mustard, red and white pepper, horseradish, anchovy, lemon juice, bacon fat, garlic, finely chopped herbs, and, of course, oil and vinegar are used in the seasoning.

A salad is really good only when it is judiciously seasoned, and as simple as this seems it requires care and skill.

An old Spanish proverb says that four persons are needed to prepare a salad, a prodigal to put in the oil, a miser to dole out the vinegar, a wise man to add the pepper and salt, andl a maniac to mix everything thoroughly. This is another way of saying that plenty of oil, little vinegar, and a judicious sprinkling of salt and pepper should be used, and that the whole must be uniformly and vigorously incorporated.

The proverb is perhaps true as regards the first three co-operators in the salad, but it errs as regards the last, who should be skilful and intelligent rather than madly energetic.

J. J. Rousseau wrote that the salad required so much care in order to retain the essential properties of the plants that they should not be touched except by the delicate fingers of a young girl.

The philosopher was doubtless writing of times before the invention of forks. It seems, in fact, that in these days the duty of dressing the salad fell to the prettiest girl in the company, and she mixed it with ber fingers before the assembled guests.

This custom was not without charms, but the appearance of the salad bowl awoke the same feelings of jealousy in the bosoms of the ladies as were felt by the

X.

goddesses at the marriage of Thetis and Peleus, when Discordia threw the golden apple among the guests.

The following anecdote concerning a salad shows once more that great effects may spring from little causes: — Among the emigres who took asylum in London during the Reign of Terror was a gentleman ruined by the Revolution, like many others, and who gained a modest living by teaching French. He took his meals at a West End tavern, much frequented by the English aristocracy. One day he was seated near a group of young fellows whose attention he attracted by the way in which he dressed a lettuce, which had been served a VAnglaise, that is to say, simply cut in four on a napkin. One of the young gentlemen asked him to do them the favour of dressing a salad for them in the same way. The Frenchman did so willingly, so much to the satisfaction of the young fellows that they talked of it all over the town. The emigre was soon in request. He obtained engagements at clubs and private houses simply to dress the salad. He soon got plenty of customers, and as he was well paid he quickly made a competency.

It must be remembered that at this time the English had a profound distaste for oil, and that they were content to eat salad simply sprinkled with salt. Of the numerous ingredients recommended in recipes the true amateur prefers the primitive dressing, that is salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar, with, by way of refinement, a trace of chervil, tarragon, and sometimes chives and pimpernel.

Pretended gourmands contend that certain salads should not be washed, but that the leaves should simply be wiped. I ac-

XI.

knowledge that lettuce* should not be steeped in water so that the crispness is destroyed and some of the flavour extracted, but on the other hand it must be remembered that the plant has been in contact with garden compost, and has sheltered thousands of insects and myriads of microbes, from which the leaves can only be freed by a thorough washing.

* Here as elsewhere the author makes the distinction, customary in France, between laitue (ordinary lettuce) and romaine (cos lettuce).— Tr.

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Chapter I.

GREEN SALADS (HERBACEOUS PLANTS).

Lettuce.

Lettuce is very justly considered to be the queen of salads. Sixty species or so are known, the chief of which is the cultivated kitchen garden annual. There are a hundred and fifty varieties of this, and they may be divided into three distinct classes, (i) the cabbage lettuce, (2) the curly-leaved lettuce, and (3) the cos lettuce, with long straight leaves.

The plant is called laitue {i.e., milky) in French because of the milky sap which it contains. It is agreed on all hands that it has nourishing and digestive properties, and possesses soothing and slightly somniferous properties.

Lettuce salad aux 'fines Jierbes.

Remove the outside leaves. Pluck the other leaves separately, and break them into several pieces. Cut the hearts in two, or if they are small leave them, whole. Wash the leaves in plenty of cold water, drain and put them into a salad basket or napkin. Shake the basket or napkin vigorously to free the salad from moisture, and put it into a salad bowl with chopped aromatic herbs, three dessert spoonfuls of oil to one of vinegar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and three pinches of pepper for a salad for four persons. Sprinkle the vinegar over the leaves to begin -with, dissolve the salt and pepper in it, then add the oil and mix thoroughly with a salad fork and spoon.

The ingredients must be added in this order; otherwise, if the oil is put in first, the leaves impregnated with it will not absorb the vinegar. As for the pepper, it is better to grind it than to use already ground pepper, which has left the best part of its aroma at the grocer’s. Of course, it is of the highest importance that the vinegar and oil should be of first quality.

Green salads should be dressed immediately before serving.

Lettuce Salad with Plovers' P^ggs.

Prepare three lettuces as in the previous recipe. Boil six plovers’ eggs for eight minutes, put them into cold water, then shell and divide lengthways. Put the lettuce in a salad bowl with a handful of cress, some chopped chervil and tarragon, three tablespoonfuls of oil, one of white vinegar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and a sprinkling of pepper. Mix all up lightly and arrange the cut plovers’ eggs on the top with the white upwards.

The French call a green salad “ cuite ” or “ confite ” when it has been prepared some hours in advance, and the leaves have become flaccid by remaining too long in the oil and vinegar.

They retain their flavour, but lose all the crispness which should be the chief virtue of a salad, and are flabby and discoloured.

In spite of this, plenty of people prefer these salads.

i.

Corn Salad.

Corn salad, also called lamb’s lettuce, is a winter salad, sown in September and October. It is all the more appreciated since it comes on the market when other green salads are scarce.

Corn salad is eaten without chervil or other garnish, which would hide its delicate flavour, but on the other hand it is at its best when eaten with beetroot.

Lettuce Salad with Hard Eggs.

Prepare the lettuce as before, and when the salad is mixed decorate it with quarters of hard eggs, first dipped in oil and vinegar, and sprinkle with pepper and salt.

Cos-lettuce Salad.

The cos lettuce is crisper and keeps fresh longer than the cabbage lettuce. In preparing it, the coarse outer leaves must be put aside.

After well washing and drying it, prepare the ordinary dressing with chopped chives, chervil, and tarragon.

This lettuce, as its (French) name {Romaine) indicates, originally came from Italy, and was imported into France by Rabelais, it is said.

Cos-lettuce Salad a la creme.

, "The dressing is as in the previous recipe, with the exception that the oil is replaced by three tablespoonfuls of cream.

Cos-lettuce Salad with Tomatoes.

^ Choose good firm tomatoes and dip them into boiling water so that they will skin easily. Cut them into slices and put them on a plate, and season before adding them which is dressed as usual Cabbage lettuce is obtainable towards the end of April. It is then very tender, but flavourless ; towards the end of May it is at its best. Cos lettuce is in good condition throughout summer and in the early autumn.

Escarole* Salad.

The escarole, or scarole, is tougher than lettuce, but it is very appetising. It is usually served with slices of beetroot, and dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and a “ garnish ” of flavouring herbs.

Chicory Salad.

There are several varieties of chicory, the two principal being wild chicory and curly chicory. The first has a bitter taste and dark-coloured leaves. The curly chicory, when it is young, is an exquisite salad. It is usually flavoured with garlic. A clove of garlic is rubbed over a smooth crust of bread, and tossed up in the salad with the other seasoning ingredients. The crust is taken out before serving, and impregnates the whole salad with a delicate flavour of garlic.

This salad must be thoroughly and well washed and dried before the seasoning is added. This consists of oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, chervil, chopped tarragon, and the garlic crust.

Chicory Salad a la Bretonne {Brittany style).

Boil half a pint of white haricots wdth a large onion and a sprig or two of parsley. When they are cooked drain them and allow to get cold. Steep them in oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and “ garnish ” for at least an

• The dictionaries simply give “endive " as a translation of “escarole.” Escarole, however, is a broad- leaved variety infinitely preferable to the ordinary endive for salad. The translator has beard a London coster use the word “scarole" in correction of a buyer wbo called it endive. — Tr.

hour. Then prepare a chicory salad, as above, and immediately before serving mix in the haricots.

Rampion.

The rampion is a plant with bell-shaped flowers, and its young leaves and root are eaten in salad. It is seasoned like other salads, and garnished with chives, tarragon, and chervil.

'Dandelion.

The dandelion is a wild plant with dentated leaves, something like the leaves of chicory. It has blood-purifying and stomachic qualities. The young leaves make an exquisite salad which needs no garnish, having sufficient flavour of their own. Oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper provide all the necessary dressing. It is usual, however, tO' serve slices of beetroot with the salad, the sugar of the root counteracting very agreeably the bitter of the dandelion.

Purslane.

Purslane is a kitchen-garden annual, which has anti-scorbutic properties. There are several varieties of it, the best known being the golden purslane which, properly dressed, makes a tasty and much appreciated salad. ^ It is prepared like an ordinary salad with the addition of pimpernel, chervil, and tarragon. The stalks of purslane can be pickled in vinegar like gherkins.

Cos-lettuce Salad a la Suisse (Swiss style).

Prepare a cos-lettuce salad as usual, then add chopped pimpernel and tarragon, and some fresh Gruyere cheese* cut into strips.

Gruyire, with a “a tear in every eye ” as the Swiss say, is almost unobtainable in England.— Tr. ^

B b

Ostrich Eggs in Salad.

The chief difficulty is to obtain a freshlylaid ostrich egg. Having “ caught ” your egg, boil it in water for a quarter of an hour, then put it into cold water, and shell it. Cut it in two lengthways, and take out the yolk. Then slice the white, and crown a prepared salad of cos-lettuce with it, decorating the white with truffles and anchovies. Make a mayonnaise with a part of the hard yolk, and serve in a sauce-boat. An ostrich egg is equal in bulk to about ten hen eggs.

This may be useful to our South African subscribers.

Endive Salad.

This excellent vegetable comes from Belgium, and is braised (stewed in a tightly closed pan) in gravy, like celery. It is also good as salad. The outer leaves are cast aside and the others are stripped off and washed thoroughly. They are then allowed to steep in water for half an hour. After drying, they are cut into pieces and seasoned with oil and tarragon vinegar in the proportion of three spoonsful of the former to one of the latter. Pepper, salt, and a little mustard are added.

As a refinement, some sliced beetroot and a little chopped chervil may be added, but the beetroot should be dressed separately, and added to the salad immediately before serving.

Barbe de Capucin.

Barbe is a cultivated form of the roots of wild chicory, which are blanched like celery. It is rather a bitter salad, and to tone this down a little beetroot should be served with it. The usual .seasoning is used, three spoonfuls of oil to one of vinegar and pepn per and salt.

W aier cress Salad.

Watercress is a wholesome plant, with anti-scorbutic properties and an agreeable taste. It grows on the borders of streams, but it is also cultivated in trenches so arranged that water is constantly running through them.

Watercress may be prepared as a salad in the usual way, but it should be dressed immediately before serving, otherwise it loses its colour and crispness, and also some of its flavour.

It is often used as a garnish for roast chicken, steak, etc. In this case it is simply sprinkled with a little salt and vinegar immediately before serving. It adds piquancy when mixed with other salads.

Cress.

This plant, originally from Persia, has also purifying properties. Its peculiar and piquant taste makes it a useful auxiliary in green salads. It is served by itself in England at breakfast or tea, and in this case it is sandwiched between bread and butter, simply sprinkled with salt.

Salsify Salad.

When salsify is prepared for cooking as a vegetable the leaves may be used as a salad. Pick them carefully, putting aside all yellow leaves, and after washing in plenty of water let them steep in water for half an hour. Then drain them, and after ressing the salad as usual, add slices oif beetroot, pickled in vinegar.

Cardoon Salad a VEspagnole {Spanish Style).

Cut the white stems of a cardoon into short sticks, stripping off the outer skin. Bleach them in boiling water, to which a little vinegar has been added, then let them cool and drain. Arrange them in a stew pan, and cover them with white stock and a glass of chablis. Add an onion garnished with two cloves, salt, pepper, and a sprig of parsley. When the cardoons are cooked drain them on a napkin.

Serv^e them in a vegetable dish, covered with a mayonnaise, to which a spoonful or two of tomato sauce and a little chopped tarragon and chives have been added.

Salade Francomtoise.

Wash and dry a cos lettuce, and cut it up in a salad bowl. Dress with pepper, vinegar, and “garnish.” Fry in oil (or butter, if preferred), a little fat bacon cut into dice. When cooked crisp pour the whole over the salad, mix thoroughly, and serve.

The salad is sufficiently salted by the fried bacon, and very little salt should be added.

English Mixed Salad.

This is a mixture of different varieties of salad, such as lettuce, celery, endive, cress, and chicory, dressed with a cream sauce prepared as follows : — Work up with a salad spoon three yolks of eggs with a little English mustard, a spoonful of oil, one of cream, one of tarragon vinegar, salt, pepper, a little castor sugar, and a sprinkling of cayenne.

The salad should be washed, drained, and mixed lightly with this dressing before sendng.

Garnish with hard eggs cut in quarters.

Watercress Salad a la Suedoise {Swedish Style).

Prepare the w'atercress as usual, and mix it with slices of apple peeled and cored.

Season as usual, but instead of “garnish” sprinkle lightly with chopped fennel and marjoram.

Ham Sandwiches and Salad.

Toast some thick slices of bread on both sides, then cut them lengthways with a sharp knife. When cold spread slices of ham or tongue on the untoasted side of one piece and butter the other. Spread a little mustard over the meat, and cover it with cress or chopped lettuce.

Put the buttered piece over it, and press with the bottom of a plate so as toi get the two pieces to adhere. Then cut into small sandwiches.

lO

Chapter II. VEGETABLE SALADS (LEGUMINOUS PLANTS) AND MIXED SALADS

Italian Salad.

Can there be a more appetising dish in spring than a salad of new vegetables? The mixture of divers colours and flavours harmonise together, charming the eye, the nose, and the palate. The recipe for such a salad is as simple as the ingredients which compose it.

Take young carrots, turnips, new potatoes, kidney beans, peas, capers, and asparagus tops.

Cut them into dice or strips like julienne, and cook separately so as to get a uniform result. Drain the ingredients well, and put them into a dish with a sprinkling of capers. Season with salt, pepper, vinegar, and chopped tarragon and chervil. Allow the salad to steep for an hour, drain off the liquor, and dress with a few’ spoonfuls of firm mayonnaise. Just before serving give the dish a border of jelly, or serve on a bed of cooked rice surrounded by hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters.

This salad may also be served in a salad bowl. In this case it should be garnished with slices of truffle and lettuce hearts.

Vegetable Salad a la Pompadour.

Cut a few new and very red carrots, the same number of firm turnips, and some new kidney potatoes into small dice, and cook them* separately in water, adding a little salt. Drain them and put them in a dish with kidney beans cut in small dice, peas, the white of two or three hard-boiled eggs, also cut into dice, a few anchovies cut in small pieces, ^d a spoonful or two of capers. Season with oil, vinegar, salt, a sprinkling of cayenne, and chopped chervil and tarragon, and bind the ingredients lightly with a little mayonnaise.

Boil also a few eggs for ten minute.s. Put them into cold water and shell them. Cut them into halves crossways, hollow out each half with a small knife, and fill each with the salad. Serve on watercress, first sprinkled with salt and a few drops of vinegar.

This may be also used for a garnish for a beefsteak or chicken a la jardiniere.

Vegetable Salad a la Montglas.

Prepare the vegetables as before, and after mixing them with mayonnaise garnish with little half-moon shapes of puff paste baked pale brown.

Russian Salad.

Russian salad is a mixture of vegetables and fish prepared and seasoned like the Italian salad. This fish is soused herring, anchovy, lobster cut into dice, and picked shrimps. The vegetables used are carrots, turnips, new potatoes, kidney beans, asparagus tops, capers, and gherkins.

The vegetables are cut into dice or thin strips, and put into a dish with the other ingredients. The whole is seasoned with salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, paprika, chopped chervil, and tarragon. Just before serving spread a few spoonfuls of firm mayonnaise over the salad, and arrange a border of aspic jelly around it, crowning the whole with small lettuce hearts.

Parisian Salad.

Cut a boiled beetroot into thin slices, and season it with salt, pepper, and vinegar. Allow it to steep in this for a little time. Cut in the same way some celery roots, new potatoes, and three or four cooked truffles. Place these in a dish with a few champignons. Season the whole with salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, and chopped gherkins, tarragon, and chervil. Before serving, drain the salad and bind it with a firm mayonnaise. Put it into a salad bowl, and decorate it with slices of beetroot.

Salad of Moulded Vegetables.

Prepare the vegetables as for an Italian salad. After draining them well, put them into a dish and season with salt, pepper, olive oil, tarragon vinegar, and minced parsley and chervil. Allow them to steep in this seasoning, and make a rather stiff mayonnaise, adding to' it a few spoonfuls of strong aspic jelly. Then drain the vegetables and mix them with the sauce Have ready a fancy mould coated with aspic, of which the bottom and sides have been lined with minced truffles, hard-boiled white of egg, and chervil leaves, all steeped in a little strong aspic jelly to make them adhere to the sides of the mould, pouring a little half-set jelly in, and turning the mould so as to get a uniform layer. Then fill in the vegetables, and put the mould on ice for two or three hours. Just before serving, dip the mould into warm water and turn out on to a cold dish. Garnish the base with pieces of set aspic jelly and small lettuce hearts cut into quarters.

Asparagus a Vliuilc.

Whilst the haricot is called the king of the kitchen garden, asparagus may be called the queen. There are several varieties of it — green, white, and violet — but the green is the most esteemed. Scrape the white part of the asparagus, and cut the sticks the same length. Wash and tie up into a bundle, then put it into boiling water, adding a little salt. When sufficiently boiled drain and allow toi get cold. When served hot, the sauce which should accompany is made as follows: — Dissolve a spoonful of salt in two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, add a little pepper, some mustard (French mustard), and two tablespoonfuls of olive oil. Serve this in a sauce boat. If cold, serve with a vinaigrette or mayonnaise.

Asparagus Salad a la Russe.

Prepare half a bundle of medium-sized asparagus and cook it in salted water for fifteen minutes. Then put it into a bowl of cold water for ten minutes, allow it to drain, and dry it in a napkin. Gut off the heads, put them into a bowl, and add the seasoning. Then cut the tender part of the asparagus in short lengths, and put it into another bowl with two dozen crayfish tails. Season with salt, cayenne pepper, oil, and tarragon vinegar.

Prepare separately some small ovals of toast spread over with caviare, and put in the centre of each some of the asparagus tops.

Serve the salad on a dish covered with a light mayonnaise and surrounded by the caviare toast.

Asparagus Salad with Shrimps.

Prepare the asparagus as in the preceding recipe. Then after draining put it into a bowl with half its quantity of picked shrimps. Make a mayonnaise sauce, and mix it lightly with the asparagus and shrimps. Serve on a dish in the centre of a border of hard-boiled eggs cut ihto quarters.