TO IMPROVE OLD POTATOES.—In the spring when the potatoes of the preceding autumn have become old, and deteriorated in quality, they will be greatly improved if, previous to boiling, a piece about the size of a shilling or a twelve-cent-piece, is cut off from each end; like “topping and tailing” them. Afterwards boil these potatoes with the skins on, and see that they are thoroughly done. Old potatoes require very long boiling, and are unfit to eat if hard in the centre, being then extremely indigestible. Their specks and blemishes make them so unsightly when sent to table whole, that it is best when sufficiently boiled, to peel and mash them. Mash them with milk or cream, if you cannot obtain good fresh butter. Salt butter will spoil their flavour instead of improving it, and all bad butter (whether salt or fresh) is unwholesome, as well as unpalatable, and should never be used for any purpose.
SYDNEY SMITH’S SALAD-DRESSING.—Have ready two well-boiled potatoes, peeled and rubbed through a sieve; they will give peculiar smoothness to the mixture. Also, a very small portion of raw onion, not more than a quarter of a tea-spoonful, (as the presence of the onion is to be scarcely hinted,) and the pounded yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Mix these ingredients on a deep plate with two small tea-spoonfuls of salt; one of made mustard; three table-spoonfuls of olive oil; and one table-spoonful of vinegar. Add, lastly, a tea-spoonful of essence of anchovy; mash, and mix the whole together (using a boxwood spoon) and see that all the articles are thoroughly amalgamated. Having cut up a sufficiency of lettuce, (that has been well washed in cold water, and drained,) add to it the dressing immediately before dinner, mixing the lettuce through it with a boxwood fork.
This salad dressing was invented by the Rev. Sydney Smith, whose genius as a writer and a wit is well-known on both sides the Atlantic. If exactly followed, it will be found very fine on trial; no peculiar flavour predominating, but excellent as a whole. The above directions are taken from a manuscript receipt given by Mr. Smith to an American gentleman then in London.
In preparing this, or any other salad-dressing, take care not to use that excessively pungent and deleterious combination of drugs which is now so frequently imposed upon the public, as the best white wine vinegar. In reality, it has no vinous material about it, and it may be known by its violent and disagreeable sharpness, which overpowers and destroys the taste (and also the substance) of whatever it is mixed with. And it is also very unwholesome. Its colour is always very pale, and it is nearly as clear as water. No one should buy or use it. The first quality of real cider vinegar is good for all purposes.
The above receipt may be tried for lobster-dressing.
LETTUCE CHICKEN SALAD.—Having skinned a pair of cold fowls, remove the fat, and carve them as if for eating, cut all the flesh entirely from the bones, and either mince it or divide it into small shreds. Mix with it a little smoked tongue or cold ham, grated rather than chopped. Have ready one or two fine fresh lettuces, picked, washed, drained, and cut small. Put the cut lettuce on a dish, (spreading it evenly,) or into a large bowl, and place upon it the minced chicken in a close heap in the centre. For the dressing, mix together the following ingredients, in the proportion of the yolks of four eggs well beaten; a tea-spoonful of powdered white sugar; a salt-spoon of cayenne; (no salt if you have ham or tongue with the chicken;) two tea-spoonfuls of made mustard; two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, and four table-spoonfuls of salad oil. Stir this mixture well: put it into a small sauce-pan, set it over the fire, and let it boil three minutes, (not more,) stirring it all the time. Then set it to cool. When quite cold, cover with it thickly the heap of chicken in the centre of the salad. To ornament it, have ready half a dozen or more hard-boiled eggs, which after the shell is peeled off, must be thrown directly into a pan of cold water to prevent their turning blue. Cut each egg (white and yolk together) lengthways into four long pieces of equal size and shape; lay the pieces upon the salad all round the heap of chicken, and close to it; placing them so as to follow each other round in a slanting direction, something in the form of a circular wreath of leaves. Have ready, also, some very red cold beet, cut into small cones or points all of equal size; arrange them in a circle upon the lettuce, outside of the circle of cut egg. To be decorated in this manner, the salad should be placed in a dish rather than a bowl. In helping it, give each person a portion of every thing, and they will mix them together on their plates.
This salad should be prepared immediately before dinner or supper, as standing long will injure it. The colder it is the better.