A handbook of invalid cooking

by Mary A. Boland

SALADS

Salads are of two classes: the plain salads, consisting of green herbs or vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, water-cress, cucumber, etc., dressed or seasoned with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar, or oil and lemon-juice; and the so-called meat salads, which consist of one or more green vegetables, with an admixture of fish, lobster, crab, fowl, or game. A salad of whichever kind should be cool, delicate, and prepared by a gentle hand. Ordinary servants do not enough appreciate the "niceties" to make acceptable salads. The lettuce, cress, or whatever green is used, should be thoroughly washed, but not crushed, broken, or roughly handled, drained in a wire basket, dried in a napkin, and then torn with the fingers, not cut. Of course, cucumbers, beet-root, olives, etc., are exceptions.

The dressing for salads, whether simply oil and vinegar, or a mayonnaise, should be mixed with a wooden spoon, and an intelligent mind. As for the seasonings, the Spanish maxim which reads as follows is a good guide: "Be a miser with vinegar, a counselor with salt, and a spendthrift with oil." Let the oil be of the first quality of genuine olive-oil. In nearly all the large cities one may get fine oil by searching for it. Once found, there is no longer any difficulty, so long as the brand does not deteriorate.

To vary and flavor the salads of vegetables only, use the fine herbs when in season, for instance balm, mint, parsley, cress, and sorrel, chopped or minced, and scattered through the salad. Unless the vinegar is known to be pure cider or wine vinegar, use lemon-juice. Theodore Child says: "Lemon-juice is the most delicate and deliciously perfumed acid that nature has given the cook."

FRENCH DRESSING

French dressing is a mixture of fine olive-oil, vinegar or lemon-juice, or both, salt, Cayenne pepper, and onion-juice. The following proportions will make enough for one head of lettuce:

1 Tablespoon of oil.
A bit of cayenne.
½ Saltspoon of salt.
4 Drops of onion-juice.
1 Teaspoon of lemon-juice.
1 Teaspoon of vinegar.

Mix all together well. This dressing may be used with lettuce, tomatoes, cold meat, potato salad, and to marinate chicken, lobster, and crab when they are to be used for salads.

MAYONNAISE DRESSING

½ Saltspoon of salt.
2 Saltspoons of mustard.
2 Saltspoons of sugar.
¼ Saltspoon of cayenne.
Yolk of one egg.
½ Cup of olive-oil.
2 Tablespoons of lemon-juice.
1 Tablespoon of vinegar.
1 Tablespoon of thick sweet cream.

These proportions may be multiplied or divided to make larger or smaller quantities. Put the first five ingredients together in a bowl, and mix them well; then add the oil one drop at a time, stirring constantly with a wooden paddle or spoon "round and round," not back and forth. After dropping and stirring for ten minutes, the mixture will become stiff and difficult to turn. At this point stir in a little of the vinegar or lemon-juice. Then drop in more oil, and stir until it again becomes stiff. Continue putting in oil and the acids until all are used, when you should have a thick, smooth cream which, when taken up on the end of the spoon, will keep its shape and not "run." It will take from twenty minutes to half an hour to make it. Last stir in the cream.

Should the dressing "break," or appear as if curdled, it may sometimes be restored to smoothness by beating with a Dover egg-beater, or by adding more egg and stirring for a while without adding oil. If these expedients fail, begin all over again, adding the spoiled dressing to a new one. However, a mayonnaise dressing will not go wrong except in the hands of a careless worker. The only points to be observed are to put the oil in slowly, and to stir constantly and rapidly. The sweet cream is a valuable addition, giving the mayonnaise a delicate, satisfying flavor.

LETTUCE SALAD

Prepare a head of lettuce by washing each leaf separately in a stream of water, tearing off any portion that is bruised or brown, and looking carefully for little green creatures that may be lodged in the creases; they are not easily seen. Then drain the lettuce on a fresh towel or napkin, for if the leaves are very wet the dressing will not cling to them. Next tear it to pieces with the fingers, rejecting the large part of the midrib, put it into a deep bowl, pour on a French dressing, and toss it with a wooden salad-spoon and fork until all the lettuce seems oiled. Serve immediately.

Mayonnaise dressing may be used instead of the French dressing in this salad.

TOMATO SALAD

Wash in cold water and wipe some fair, ripe tomatoes. Cut them in slices one third of an inch thick. Do not peel them. Arrange some clean white lettuce leaves on a silver or china platter, with two large leaves at either end, their stems toward the middle, and two small ones at the sides. Lay on them the slices of tomato, with their edges overlapping each other. Serve with this salad French dressing.

CHICKEN SALAD

Prepare a nice chicken (one not too young) by boiling it until tender. Then set it away in its own broth to cool. (It is a good plan to boil the chicken the day before it is intended for use.) Meanwhile make a mayonnaise dressing. When the chicken has become cold, take it from the broth, and cut it as nearly as possible into half-inch cubes, rejecting all skin, tendons, cords, and bones. Season it with salt and pepper. Tear into small pieces with the fingers some tender, well-cleaned lettuce, and then mix equal quantities of chicken and lettuce with a part of the dressing; arrange it in a shallow salad-bowl, and spread the remainder of the mayonnaise over the top. The yolk of egg hard-boiled and pressed through a wire strainer with the back of a spoon, so that it falls in little crinkled pieces all over the top, makes a pretty garnish. Celery tops, the tiny inside leaves of lettuce, and parsley may be used singly or together for a border.

Chicken salad is usually made with celery instead of lettuce, but the latter is better for an invalid, although tender, delicate celery may be used. Serve a very small quantity, for chicken salad is a concentrated food, and should not be eaten in large amounts by either the convalescent or the well. The chicken, lettuce, and dressing may all be prepared beforehand, but on no account should they be mixed together until just before serving.

POTATO SALAD

For this salad fresh boiled potatoes, red sugar-beets, and French dressing are needed. The potatoes and beets should be cooked in salted water purposely for the salad, and allowed to become just cool. Cold potatoes left over from the last meal may be used, but they are not nice. When the potatoes are cool, cut them into thin slices, season with a little more salt and a bit of white pepper; cut the beets also in thin slices, and mix the two in the proportions of one third beets to two thirds potatoes, with the dressing, or arrange them in alternate layers in a salad-bowl, with the dressing poured over each layer as it is made.

A more dainty way, and one which a person of cultivated taste will appreciate (as it really makes a perceptible difference in the flavor of the salad), is to mix the lemon-juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper together without the oil, and pour it over the different layers as they are laid, and then add the oil by itself. The acids penetrate and season the vegetables, and the oil is left on the outside of each piece.

POTATO SALAD WITH OLIVES

Make a potato salad according to the foregoing rule, except substitute chopped olives for the beets, in the proportion of one eighth olives by measure to seven eighths potato.

CELERY SALAD

"One of the finest salads to be eaten, either alone or with game, especially partridges or wild duck, is a mixture of celery, beet-root, and corn-salad. Water-cresses will make a poor substitute when broken into small tufts.

"The beets are cut into slices one sixteenth of an inch thick; the celery, which must be young and tender and thoroughly white, should be cut into pieces an inch long, and then sliced lengthwise into two or three pieces. (N. B.—Select only the tender inside branches of celery.) This salad will require plenty of oil, and more acid than a lettuce salad, because of the sweetness and absorbent nature of the beet-root. The general seasoning, too, must be rather high, because the flavors of the celery and the beet are pronounced." ("Delicate Feasting," by Theodore Child.)

There are many kinds of salads, but they are all based upon the principles stated in these rules. Green herbs or vegetables treated with French or mayonnaise dressing, either by themselves or with meats, form the foundations of all salads.

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