Carrot Salad.—The young spring carrots are excellent when served as a salad. Take six of them, wash, wipe them with a coarse towel, boil them for ten minutes, drain and cut into narrow strips. Arrange neatly in the centre of a salad-bowl; cut up half a pound of cold boiled mutton into neat pieces; put it around the carrots. Mince a stalk of celery with a few tarragon leaves; strew over the dish; add a plain dressing and serve.
Cauliflower Salad.—Put into a basin of cold water a head of cauliflower, head downward, add half a teaspoonful of salt, and a wineglass of vinegar. Let stand for half or three-fourths of an hour, drain, and put it into a saucepan to boil until tender. The length of time for boiling depends upon the size of the head. Remove the scum carefully as it rises, or it will discolor the cauliflower. When done separate the sprigs, and arrange them around the bowl, heads outward. Put into the centre of the dish a head of cabbage-lettuce, cover it with red mayonnaise (see [Lobster Salad]), and sprinkle a few capers on top. Mask the cauliflower with mayonnaise, garnish with beet diamonds, and the effect is very pleasing.
Celeriac Salad.—Celeriac, or turnip-rooted celery, is an excellent vegetable for the gouty and the rheumatic. When stewed and served with cream sauce, it is at its best. It may be used in salads either raw or boiled. If used raw, cut it into very thin slices; if cooked, cut it into inch pieces. Mix with it endive, potato, and a little boiled tongue, in equal proportions; serve with a plain dressing.
Celery Salad.—With the exception of lettuce, celery is more generally used as a salad in this country than any other plant.
Cut off the root end of three heads of celery; wipe each leaf-stalk carefully, and cut them into inch pieces. Cut each piece into strips, put them into a salad-bowl, add a plain mayonnaise, and serve.
Cherry Salad.—Remove the stones from a quart of fine, black ox-heart cherries. Place them into a compote, dust powdered sugar over them, and add half a wineglassful each of sherry and curaçoa. Just before serving mix lightly.
Chicory Salad.—Thoroughly wash and drain two heads of chicory; cut away the green leaves and use them for garnishing, or boil them as greens. Cut off the root-end from the bleached leaves, and put the latter into a salad-bowl that has been rubbed with a clove of garlic. Add half a dozen tarragon leaves, four to six tablespoonfuls of oil, a saltspoonful of white pepper, and two saltspoonfuls of salt. Mix thoroughly. Now add a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar, and you have a delightful salad.
Chicken Salad.—The average cook book contains a good deal of nonsense about this salad. Nothing can be more simple than to mix a little nicely cut cold boiled chicken and celery together, with a tablespoonful or two of mayonnaise. Put this mixture into a salad-bowl, arrange it neatly, and over all add a mayonnaise. Garnish with celery tops, hard-boiled eggs, strips of beets, etc. Use a little more celery than chicken. Or, tear a few leaves of lettuce, put them in a salad-bowl, and add half a cold, boiled, tender chicken that has been cut into neat pieces; pour over it a mayonnaise; garnish neatly, and serve.
For large parties, and when the chicken is apt to become dry, from having been cut up long before it is wanted, it is best to keep it moist by adding a plain dressing. Drain it before using. Put on a flat side-dish a liberal bed of crisp lettuce. Add the chicken, garnish neatly, and, just before sending to table, pour over it a mayonnaise.
If in hot weather, arrange the salad on a dish that will stand in a small tub or kid. Fill this with ice, place the dish on top, pin a napkin or towel around the tub to hide it from view. Flowers, smilax, etc., may be pinned on this, which produce a very pretty effect.