Salad Dressing made with Butter.
Four table-spoonfuls of butter, one of flour, one table-spoonful of salt, one of sugar, one heaping teaspoonful of mustard, a speck of cayenne, one cupful of milk, half a cupful of vinegar, three eggs. Let the butter get hot in a sauce-pan. Add the flour, and stir until smooth, being careful not to brown. Add the milk, and boil up. Place the sauce-pan in another of hot water. Beat the eggs, salt, pepper, sugar and mustard together, and add the vinegar. Stir this into the boiling mixture, and stir until it thickens like soft custard, which will be in about fire minutes. Set away to cool; and when cold, bottle, and place in the ice-chest. This will keep two weeks.
Bacon Salad Dressing.
Two table-spoonfuls of bacon or pork fat, one of flour, one of lemon juice, half a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, one of mustard, two eggs, half a cupful of water, half a cupful of vinegar. Have the fat hot. Add the flour, and stir until smooth, but not brown. Add the water, and boil up once. Place the sauce-pan in another of boiling water. Have the eggs and seasoning beaten together. Add the vinegar to the boiling mixture, and stir in the beaten egg. Cook four minutes, stirring all the while. Cool and use. If corked tightly, this will keep two weeks in a cold place.
French Salad Dressing.
Three table-spoonfuls of oil, one of vinegar, one salt-spoonful of salt, one-half a salt-spoonful of pepper. Put the salt and pepper in a cup, and add one table-spoonful of the oil. When thoroughly mixed, add the remainder of the oil and the vinegar. This is dressing enough for a salad for six persons. If you like the flavor of onion, grate a little juice into the dressing. The juice is obtained by first peeling the onion, and then grating with a coarse grater, using a good deal of pressure. Two strokes will give about two drops of juice--enough for this rule.
Chicken Salad.
Have cold roasted or boiled chicken free of skin, fat and bones. Place on a board, and cut in long, thin strips, and cut these into dice. Place in an earthen bowl (there should be two quarts), and season with four table-spoonfuls of vinegar, two of oil, one teaspoonful of salt and one-half of a teaspoonful of pepper. Set away in a cold place for two or three hours. Scrape and wash enough of the tender white celery to make one quart. Cut this, with a sharp knife, in pieces about half an inch thick. Put these in the ice chest until serving time. Make the mayonnaise dressing. Mix the chicken and celery together, and add half of the dressing. Arrange in a salad bowl or on a flat dish, and pour the remainder of the dressing over it. Garnish with white celery leaves. Or, have a jelly border, and arrange the salad in this. Half celery and half lettuce is often used for chicken salad. Many people, when preparing for a large company, use turkey instead of chicken, there being so much more meat in the same number of pounds of the raw material; but the salad is not nearly so nice as with chicken. If, when the chicken or fowl is cooked, it is allowed to cool in the water in which it is boiled, it will be juicier and tenderer than if taken from the water as soon as done.
Lobster Salad.
Cut up and season the lobster the same as chicken. Break the leaves from a head of lettuce, one by one, and wash them singly in a large pan of cold water. Put them in a pan of ice water for about ten minutes, and then shake in a wire basket, to free them of water. Place in the ice chest until serving time. When ready to serve, put two or three leaves together in the form of a shell, and arrange these shells on a flat dish. Mix one-half of the mayonnaise dressing with the lobster. Put a table-spoonful of this in each cluster of leaves. Finish with a teaspoonful of the dressing on each spoonful of lobster. This is an exceedingly inviting dish. Another method is to cut or tear the leaves rather coarse, and mix with the lobster. Garnish the border of the dish with whole leaves. There should be two-thirds lobster to one-third lettuce.