Woman's Institute Library of Cookery. Volume 4: Salads and Sandwiches; Cold and Frozen Desserts; Cakes, Cookies and Puddings; Pastries and Pies

by Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

SALADS AND SANDWICHES

SALADS IN THE DIET

1. So much variety exists among salads that it is somewhat difficult to give a comprehensive definition of this class of foods. In general, however, salads may be considered as a dish of green herbs or vegetables, sometimes cooked, and usually chopped or sliced, sometimes mixed with fruit or with cooked and chopped cold meat, fish, etc., and generally served with a dressing. For the most part, salads take their name from their chief ingredient, as, for instance, chicken salad, tomato salad, pineapple salad, etc. Just what place salads have in the meal depends on the salad itself. A high-protein salad, such as lobster salad, should take the place of the meat course, whereas, a light salad of vegetables or fruits may be used as an additional course.

2. IMPORTANCE OF SALADS.--Salads are often considered to be a dish of little importance; that is, something that may be left out or added to a meal without affecting it to any great extent. While this may be the case in a meal that is composed of a sufficient variety of foods, salads have a definite place in meals as they are planned in the majority of households. Often there is a tendency to limit green vegetables or fresh fruits in the diet, but if the members of a family are to be fed an ideal diet it is extremely important that some of these foods enter into each day's meals, a fact that is often overlooked. There is no more effective nor appetizing way in which to include them in a meal than in the serving of salads. In addition, salads make a strong appeal to the appetite and at the same time are beneficial so far as the health of the family is concerned.

3. PURPOSES OF SALADS.--Because of the wide variety of salads and the large number of ingredients from which a selection may be made in their preparation, salads can be used for various purposes. The housewife who gives much attention to the artistic side of the serving of food in her home will often use a salad to carry out a color scheme in her meal. This is, of course, the least valuable use that salads have, but it is a point that should not be overlooked. The chief purpose of salads in a meal is to provide something that the rest of the foods served in the meal lack.

Even though it is not desired to use the salad to carry out a color scheme, it should always be made an attractive dish. As is well known, nothing is so unappetizing as a salad in which the ingredients have not been properly prepared, the garnish is not fresh and crisp, or the dressing and salad ingredients have been combined in such a way as to appear messy or stale looking. There is no excuse for such conditions, and they need not exist if proper attention is given to the preparation of the salad.

4. SELECTION OF SALADS.--Although salads, through their variety, offer the housewife an opportunity to vary her meals, they require a little attention as to their selection if a properly balanced meal is to be the result. Salads that are high in food value or contain ingredients similar to those found in the other dishes served in the meal, should be avoided with dinners or with other heavy meals. For instance, a fish or a meat salad should not be served with a dinner, for it would supply a quantity of protein to a meal that is already sufficiently high in this food substance because of the fact that meat also is included. Such a salad, however, has a place in a very light luncheon or a supper, for it helps to balance such a meal. The correct salad to serve with a dinner that contains a number of heavy dishes is a vegetable salad, if enough vegetables are not already included, or a fruit salad, if the dessert does not consist of fruit. In case a fruit salad is selected, it is often made to serve for both the salad and the dessert course.

5. SALAD ACCOMPANIMENTS.--In addition to the ingredients used in the preparation of salads, dressings usually form an important part. These vary greatly as to ingredients and consequently as to composition, but most of them contain considerable fat and therefore increase the food value of the salad. Then, too, an accompaniment of some kind is generally served with salads to make them more attractive and more pleasing to the taste. This may be a wafer or a cracker of some description or a small sandwich made of bread cut into thin slices and merely buttered or buttered and then spread with a filling of some sort. Such accompaniments, of course, are not a necessity, but they add enough to the salad to warrant their use.

COMPOSITION OF SALADS

6. The composition, as well as the total food value, of salads depends entirely on the ingredients of which they are composed. With an understanding of the composition of the ingredients used in salads, the housewife will be able to judge fairly accurately whether the salad is low, medium, or high in food value, and whether it is high in protein, fat, or carbohydrate. This matter is important, and should receive consideration from all who prepare this class of food.

7. PROTEIN IN SALADS.--As may be expected, salads that are high in protein have for their basis, or contain, such ingredients as meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, nuts, or dried beans. The amount of protein that such a salad contains naturally varies with the quantity of high-protein food that is used. For instance, a salad that has hard-cooked eggs for its foundation contains considerable protein, but one in which a slice or two of hard-cooked egg is used for a garnish cannot be said to be a high-protein salad.

8. FAT IN SALADS.--The fat in salads is more often included as a part of the dressing than in any other way, but the quantity introduced may be very large. A French dressing or a mayonnaise dressing, as a rule, contains a sufficient proportion of some kind of oil to make the salad in which it is used somewhat high in fat. In fact, salads are often used as a means of introducing fat into a meal, and whenever this is done they should be considered as one of the dishes that supply energy-producing food material to the meals in which they are served.

9. CARBOHYDRATE IN SALADS.--For the most part, salads do not contain carbohydrate in any quantity. If fruits are used, the salad will, of course, contain a certain amount of sugar. Salads in which potatoes, peas, beets, and other vegetables are used also contain starch or sugar in varying quantities. However, with the exception of potato salad, salads are probably never taken as a source of carbohydrate.

10. MINERAL SALTS IN SALADS.--In the majority of salads, mineral salts are an important ingredient. Meat and fish salads are the only ones in which the mineral salts are not especially desirable, but they can be improved in this respect if a certain amount of vegetables are mixed with them. Green-vegetable salads are the most valuable sources of mineral salts, and fruit salads come next. In addition, these two varieties of salads contain vitamines, which are substances necessary to maintain health. Cheese and egg salads, which are high-protein salads, are also valuable for the vitamines they supply.

11. CELLULOSE IN SALADS.--Vegetable and fruit salads serve to supply cellulose in the diet. Unless the meals contain sufficient cellulose in some other form, the use of such salads is an excellent way in which to introduce this material. Of course, the salads composed of foods high in cellulose are lower in food value than others, but the salad dressing usually helps to make up for this deficiency.

INGREDIENTS OF SALADS

12. VARIETY IN SALAD INGREDIENTS.--One of the advantages of salads is that the ingredients from which they can be made are large in number. In fact, almost any cooked or raw fruit or vegetable, or any meat, fowl, or fish, whether cooked expressly for this purpose or left over from a previous meal, may be utilized in the making of salads. Canned foods of these varieties may also be used to advantage for salads during the winter when fresh foods are expensive and difficult to procure. The idea that such foods cannot be used is wrong.

13. As far as meats are concerned, they are not used so extensively in salads as are fruits and vegetables. Often, however, veal or pork may be used to increase the quantity of material needed to make certain salads, such as chicken salad. Canned fish or fish freshly cooked makes appetizing salads, and if there is not a sufficient quantity of one kind on hand, another may be added without impairing the quality of the salad.

14. As has already been stated, almost any vegetable, raw, canned, or freshly cooked, can be used in the making of salads. In addition, these vegetables may be combined in almost any way. Small amounts of two, three, four, or more vegetables may be combined with an appetizing salad dressing and served as a luncheon or dinner salad. If no definite recipe is followed but whatever material that happens to be on hand is utilized, the result is not only an appetizing salad, but a saving of vegetables that might otherwise be wasted.

15. Fruits, both canned and raw, are largely used in the making of salads. As with vegetables, almost any combination of them makes a delicious salad when served with the proper dressing. Thus, a slice of pineapple, a canned peach or two, or a few spoonfuls of cherries may be added to grapefruit, oranges, bananas, or whatever fruit may happen to be most convenient or easy to procure and served with the salad dressing that is preferred. Vegetables are seldom used with fruits, celery being the only one that is ever employed in this way. On the other hand, nuts are much used with fruits, vegetables, meats, and fish in the making of salads and any variety may be utilized.

16. SALAD GARNISHES.--The garnishing of salads, while it may seem to be an unimportant part of the preparation of this food, is really a matter that demands considerable attention. Lettuce is used oftenest for this purpose, but almost any edible green, such as endive, watercress, etc., makes an excellent garnish. Generally when lettuce is the garnish, the leaves are used whole, but if they are not in good condition for garnishing or if use is to be made of the coarse outside leaves of the stalks, they may be arranged in a pile, rolled tight, and then, as shown in Fig. 1, cut with a sharp knife into narrow strips. Lettuce prepared in this way is said to be shredded, and a bed of it makes a very attractive garnish for many kinds of salad. Among the other foods used as a garnish are certain vegetables that give a contrast in color, such as pimiento, green peppers, radishes, and olives. Slices of hard-cooked eggs or the yolks of eggs forced through a ricer likewise offer a touch of attractive color.

17. NATURE OF SALAD DRESSINGS.--When a salad is properly made, a salad dressing of some kind is usually added to the ingredients that are selected for the salad. This dressing generally has for its chief ingredient a salad oil of some kind, many satisfactory varieties of which are to be found on the market. Olive oil has always been the most popular oil used for this purpose, and in many respects it is the most desirable. It can be obtained in several grades, the price varying with the excellence of the quality. The best grades have a yellowish color, the poorest ones are somewhat green, and those of medium quality shade between these two colors. The best grades are also clear, while the poorer ones are usually cloudy, the better the quality the less cloudy the oil. Besides olive oil, however, there are oils made of cottonseed, corn, and nuts. Many of these products are cheaper than olive oil and are almost, if not quite, as satisfactory. In combination with the oil that is used for salad dressing, there is always an acid of some kind, such as vinegar or lemon juice. To these ingredients are added spices and flavoring. Such a dressing is prepared without cooking, the ingredients being combined by proper mixing or beating.

18. Another kind of dressing that is much used is known as boiled salad dressing. Its ingredients are similar to those used in the uncooked salad dressing, but usually less fat is employed and eggs alone or eggs and some starchy material are used for thickening.

Then, again, entirely different kinds of dressing may be made for fruit salads. Sometimes these dressings contain no fat, and other times they have for their basis sweet or sour cream, but usually they are made so that they are somewhat acid to the taste.