Salads.—Salads are seasoned with oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, and sometimes with mustard also. The best oil is that made of olives, but much is sold for olive-oil which contains more lard than oil. It is impossible to tell which is pure by the color. Pure olive-oil is of a pale-yellow-greenish color. It is very easy to tell the pure oil by tasting, but of course it is necessary to know the real taste of good oil.
The best vinegar is wine-vinegar, with tarragon in it (vinaigre à l'estragon), but it is expensive. Next to it is cider-vinegar. Beer makes good vinegar, but inferior to that made with cider. Pyrolignic vinegar is very unhealthy. No one can be too careful in selecting vinegar. The superiority of the French mustard comes from the compounds used, and not from the way it is made, as thought by many. In the French mustard, besides vinaigre à l'estragon, there is white wine, and more sweet-oil than in any other kind. A good deal of mustard is made here, and often sold as French, after being carefully labelled.
Salad is made with every species of lettuce; chicory, cultivated and wild; cabbages, red and white; cauliflowers, celery, dandelion, corn-salad, purslain, water-cress, etc. If it were possible to clean the salad by merely wiping the leaves with a towel, it would be better than washing; but it must be washed if there is any earth or sand on it. The salad should be made by an experienced person, who can judge at a glance what quantity of salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar is necessary. The quantities cannot be given, as that depends on the quantity of salad. Chopped parsley and chives are served on a small plate at the same time with the salad, as many persons like those spices.
Celery.—When the celery is washed and cleaned, wipe it dry, cut the white or eatable part (the top or green part is used for soup) in pieces about one inch long, put them in the salad-dish with salt, vinegar, and mustard, stir a little, leave thus about one hour, then add pepper and oil, move again, and serve.
Lettuce.—Lettuce, and especially Cos or Roman lettuce, must be handled very gingerly, in order not to wilt the leaves while cleaning and washing. When the head of the lettuce, especially of Roman lettuce, is hard, it is not necessary to wash it at all, as when the outer leaves are taken off, the rest is perfectly clean. Never use the knife, but break the leaves; put them in the salad-dish; spread all over the dish, according to taste and fancy, the blossoms and petals (not the leaves) of any or all of the following plants: burnet, wild chiccory, rose (any kind), pink, sage, lady's-slipper, marsh-mallow, nasturtium, periwinkle. Thus decorated, the salad is put on the table at the setting of it, and made when the time for eating it comes. Of these decorative flowers, the handiest are the rose and pink, as at every season of the year they are easily obtained. In spring and summer most of the others can also be had easily.
The salad, thus decorated, is placed on the table at the same time with the soup. It is made while the roast-piece is carved or eaten; the petals of flowers or blossoms are not removed, and, of course, are eaten with the lettuce. The salad is seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar, and oil. The proportions are two tablespoonfuls of oil to one of vinegar for a salad for three, four, or five persons. It is generally moved round in the dish, so as to impregnate every leaf with the seasoning. It is served immediately after the roast-piece.
Cream may be used instead of oil.
Turnip-rooted Celery (called also Soup Celery.)—Clean, wash well, and scrape it carefully; cut it in thin slices, place it in the salad-dish, sprinkle salt, pepper, vinegar, and mustard on it, mix well the whole together, and leave thus from four to six hours. Then throw away the vinegar, or most of it; add very little salt and vinegar, oil, and move well. Serve as above, that is, immediately after the roast-piece of the dinner.
A salad with cabbage, chiccory, corn-salad, or any kind of greens, after being properly cleaned, washed, wiped dry, and cut in pieces if necessary, is made and served exactly like a salad of lettuce described above.