Take lettuce as the example, although any of those mentioned are made in the same way. Have the lettuce dry in the salad bowl, put in the salad-spoon a saltspoonful of salt, a quarter one of pepper, and, holding it over the bowl, fill the spoon with oil; mix the salt and pepper well with it, and turn it over the salad; toss the salad lightly over and over till the leaves glisten, then add two (if for epicures, three or four) more spoonfuls of oil, then toss again over and over till every leaf is well coated with oil; then sprinkle in a saladspoonful of sharp vinegar. Toss again, and the salad is ready.
One salad less well known than it deserves to be is that made from the grape fruit. This is an especially grateful dish for spring breakfast, when cool, refreshing things are in order. Many tell me they have tried to eat grape fruit, but find it quite impossible on account of the intense bitter.
There is a very slight and pleasant bitter with grape fruit when properly prepared, but if by carelessness or ignorance even a small portion of the pith is left in it intense bitter is imparted to the whole.
Grape-fruit Salad.—Prepare the fruit, some hours before it is wanted, in the following way: Cut the fruit in four as you would an orange; separate the sections; then remove the pulp from each, taking care that no white pith or skin adheres to it. Put the pulp on the ice until just before serving; then dress with oil and vinegar exactly as directed for lettuce, etc.
Meat or fish salads should always be dressed with mayonnaise. I say nothing of the well-known lobster and chicken salads, which are so general that one is tempted to think the majority of people do not know how excellent some other combination salads are. Salmon salad—the fish flaked, laid on a bed of crisp lettuce with a border of the leaves, and masked with mayonnaise, with a garnish of aspic—is both handsome and delicious; but cold halibut, or even cod—any firm fish that flakes, in fact—make delightful salads, and acceptable to many who cannot eat lobster. In the way of meat salads, partridge or grouse are far daintier than chicken, prepared in just the same way. There is one point, however, which should be observed in making all meat salads: it is that the material should be well dressed with oil, vinegar, and condiments before the mayonnaise is put on. Usually one of two courses is followed: either the meat is left dry, the mayonnaise being supposed sufficient, or it is dressed with mayonnaise and then masked with it. In the latter case the salad is far too rich; in the former it is flat, because mayonnaise, if rightly made, has not acidity enough to flavor the meat; therefore it and the celery or other salad mixed with it should be bathed with French dressing before it is masked.
With these general rules any salad may be made; but as variety is the spice of the table, it may be borne in mind that in spring a sprig of mint, very finely chopped, gives a fragrance to lettuce, as does chervil or borage, parsley, or a tiny bit of onion. To a game salad nothing should be added.
No recipe is needed for mayonnaise, it having been given in the chapter on cold sauces.
In the course of these chapters several cheese dishes have been given, but there are a few others especially appropriate to the cheese and salad course, where it constitutes part of the dinner, which I will include. Cheese dishes are far less popular in this country than in Europe, but there are families whose masculine members eat no sweets, and for whom a dainty cheese dish would be very acceptable.
Genoa Ramaquin.—Cut a slice of Vienna or other baker’s bread, half an inch thick, lengthwise of the loaf, so that it covers the bottom of a fire-proof dish—a soufflé pan well buttered is excellent; beat two eggs and half a pint of milk together; add a level saltspoonful of salt; pour this custard over the bread, and leave it an hour to soak. Pour off any custard that may not be absorbed; dust the bread with pepper; then cover with the following mixture: dissolve as much rich cheese shaved in half a gill of cream as will cover the bread an inch thick, stirring it over a slow fire. Season with pepper and salt, and pour the cheese over the bread. Put it in the oven, and bake for half an hour, or till quite brown.
Cheese Puffs.—Line patty-pans with puff-paste, and fill three parts full with the following mixture: put a gill of cream in a double boiler with two ounces of grated cheese (half Parmesan if liked), a saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of pepper, a pinch of sugar, and a large teaspoonful of butter; when all is melted to a thick custard, break into it two eggs well whipped. The mixture is only to be made hot enough to melt the cheese, not to boil.