“There is not this difficulty with regard to salad herbs, and we conceive that the diffusion of a little knowledge as to their properties and value would be an unmixed benefit to our rural population.
“The first place must be assigned on the score of antiquity to the sorrel plant (Rumex acetosa), which in some districts still preserves the name of ‘green sauce,’ assigned to it in early times, when it formed almost the only dinner vegetable.
“Its acid is pleasant and wholesome, more delicate in flavour than that of the wood-sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), which, however, is used for table purposes in France and Germany. Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) is often found in a wild state, and is an admirable addition to the salad bowl; and it is unnecessary to enlarge upon the virtues of celery (Apium graveolens) when improved by cultivation.”
John Ray, writing in 1663, says that “the Italians use several herbs for sallets, which are not yet, or have not been used lately, but in England, viz. Selleri, which is nothing else but the sweet smallage; the young shoots whereof, with a little of the head of the root, cut off, they eat raw with oil and pepper,” and to this we may add that the alisander (Smyrnium olusattrum) is no bad substitute for its better-known congener. The dandelion, which in France is blanched for the purpose, affords that amarie aliquid which the professed salad maker finds in the leaves of the endive, and the same essential ingredient may be supplied by the avens (Geum urbanum), the
bladder campion (Silene inflata), and the tender shoots of the wild hop. Most people are familiar with the properties of the watercress (Nasturtium officinale), garlic hedge mustard (Erysimum aliaria), but it may not be generally known that the common shepherd’s purse (Eupsulla Bursa-pastoris) and the lady’s-smock (Cardamine pratensis) are pleasant additions, whose merits have long been recognised by our foreign neighbours. In fact, there is scarcely a herb that grows which has not some culinary virtue in a French peasant’s eyes. Out of the blanched shoots of the wild chicory (Cichorium Intybus) he forms the well-known barbe de capucius, and dignifies with the title of Salade de chamoine our own neglected corn-salad (Fedia olitaria). It would be very easy to extend the dimensions of our list of native salad herbs, for there are, perhaps, some palates to which the strong flavours of the chives (Allium schœnoprasum) and stonecrop (Sedum reflexum) may commend themselves; but enough has been said to show that nature has not dealt niggardly with us, and that only knowledge is needful to make the riches she offers available.
If the British peasant can be taught to discover hidden virtues in these plants, with whose outward forms he has had life-long familiarity, we do not despair of his acquiring the one secret of salad-making, viz. the judicious employment of oil, so as to correct the acrid juices of the plants, and yet preserve their several flavours unimpaired.
Salad, Let′tuce. Prep. Take two large lettuces, remove the faded leaves and the coarser green ones; next cut the green tops off, pull each leaf off separately, rinse it in cold water, cut it lengthways, and then into four or ten pieces; put these into a bowl, and sprinkle over them, with your fingers, 1 small teaspoonful of salt, 1⁄2 do. of pepper, 3 do. of salad oil, and 2 do. of English or 1 of French vinegar; then with the spoon and fork turn the salad lightly in the bowl until thoroughly mixed; the less it is handled the better. A teaspoonful each of chopped chervil and tarragon is an immense improvement.
Obs. The above seasoning is said to be enough for 1⁄4 lb. of lettuce. According to Soyer, it is “such as the Italian count used to make some years since, by which he made a fortune in dressing salads for the tables of the aristocracy.” The above may be varied by the addition of 2 eggs, boiled hard, and sliced, a little eschalot, or a few chives or young onions. Several other salad herbs, especially endive, water-cresses, and mustard-and-cress, may be ‘dressed’ in the same manner; always remembering that the excellence of a salad depends chiefly on the vegetables which compose them being recently gathered and carefully cleansed.
To improve the appearance of the above and other salads, when on the table or sideboard, before being used, the gay flower of the
nasturtium or marigold, with a little sliced beet-root or radish, and sliced cucumber, may be tastefully intermixed with them.