Salads are of two classes: the plain salads, consisting of green herbs or vegetables, such as lettuce, endive, water-cress, cucumber, etc., dressed or seasoned with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar, or oil and lemon-juice; and the so-called meat salads, which consist of one or more green vegetables, with an admixture of fish, lobster, crab, fowl, or game. A salad of whichever kind should be cool, delicate, and prepared by a gentle hand. Ordinary servants do not enough appreciate the "niceties" to make acceptable salads. The lettuce, cress, or whatever green is used, should be thoroughly washed, but not crushed, broken, or roughly handled, drained in a wire basket, dried in a napkin, and then torn with the fingers, not cut. Of course, cucumbers, beet-root, olives, etc., are exceptions.
The dressing for salads, whether simply oil and vinegar, or a mayonnaise, should be mixed with a wooden spoon, and an intelligent mind. As for the seasonings, the Spanish maxim which reads as follows is a good guide: "Be a miser with vinegar, a counselor with salt, and a spendthrift with oil." Let the oil be of the first quality of genuine olive-oil. In nearly all the large cities one may get fine oil by searching for it. Once found, there is no longer any difficulty, so long as the brand does not deteriorate.
To vary and flavor the salads of vegetables only, use the fine herbs when in season, for instance balm, mint, parsley, cress, and sorrel, chopped or minced, and scattered through the salad. Unless the vinegar is known to be pure cider or wine vinegar, use lemon-juice. Theodore Child says: "Lemon-juice is the most delicate and deliciously perfumed acid that nature has given the cook."
FRENCH DRESSING
French dressing is a mixture of fine olive-oil, vinegar or lemon-juice, or both, salt, Cayenne pepper, and onion-juice. The following proportions will make enough for one head of lettuce:
1 Tablespoon of oil.
A bit of cayenne.
½ Saltspoon of salt.
4 Drops of onion-juice.
1 Teaspoon of lemon-juice.
1 Teaspoon of vinegar.
Mix all together well. This dressing may be used with lettuce, tomatoes, cold meat, potato salad, and to marinate chicken, lobster, and crab when they are to be used for salads.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING
½ Saltspoon of salt.
2 Saltspoons of mustard.
2 Saltspoons of sugar.
¼ Saltspoon of cayenne.
Yolk of one egg.
½ Cup of olive-oil.
2 Tablespoons of lemon-juice.
1 Tablespoon of vinegar.
1 Tablespoon of thick sweet cream.