Dishes made without meat

by Mrs. C. S. Peel

CHAPTER VIII
SALADS

The English salad is not as a rule a success, and undoubtedly the chief fault in its making lies in the inferior quality of the oil used.

Provided with good oil the next point of importance in a green salad is the condition of the material. If the lettuces, endive, cress or watercress are faded the salad is ruined. The lettuce, etc., should of course be freshly cut, if possible, but where this is not feasible it should be chosen with care, and at once put into water—not soused into a basin, but placed with its root only in water—as if it were a flower—in a cool place. In this way a lettuce will keep in perfect condition for two or three days, if needs be. Cress and endive should be treated likewise. Let us now consider the making of

French Salad

Choose crisp lettuces, cut off the stalk and remove the outer leaves (when well washed these may be used for lettuce purée), tear the lettuce in pieces (on no account cut it), and wash it in a bowl of cold water. Place it in a clean cloth and swing it round until dry. This method of drying by centrifugal force gets rid of the moisture and does not bruise the lettuce.

Now rub the salad bowl very thoroughly with a slice of onion, and if the flavour is liked place half a small peeled onion in the centre of the bowl. Mix in the bowl 1 dessertspoonful of the best wine vinegar and 2 tablespoonsful of oil, and add a little salt and a good dusting of freshly-ground black pepper. Stir the lettuce round lightly in the mixture and serve. This quantity of oil and vinegar is sufficient for about 2 medium lettuces, but only experience teaches the exact quantity to use. The lettuce should not be swimming in the mixture: the leaves should merely be coated with it, and no remains of it should be left at the bottom of the bowl when the salad is mixed.

The chief faults of the average salad, next to the use of inferior oil and flabby lettuce, are the excess of dressing, the excess of vinegar, and the use of pepper which is not freshly ground. A salad prepared in the manner described is as different as chalk is from cheese from the salad which is generally put before one, and no more difficult to make. Salads of endive, corn, Batavian lettuce, or cress, should be made in just the same manner.

For orange salad and orange and cherry salad a similar dressing is used, and I notice how these fruit salads are growing in favour.

Orange Salad

simply consists of the sections of oranges free from pith and skin, string and pips, arranged in a bowl and dressed with oil and vinegar.