In ancient times the fairest and youngest lady at table was expected to prepare and mix the salad with her fingers. "Retourner la salade les doigts," is the French way of describing a lady to be still young and beautiful.
Codfish (Salt) Salad.—Take three pieces of codfish two inches square; split them in two, and soak them in water over night. Change the water twice, next day drain and wipe dry. Baste each piece with a little butter, and broil (they make a very nice breakfast dish, served with drawn butter). When cool, tear them apart, and cover with a plain salad dressing; let stand for two hours. Half fill a salad-bowl with crisp lettuce leaves; drain the fish and add it to the lettuce; add mayonnaise; garnish with lemon-peel rings, hard-boiled eggs, etc., and serve.
Corn Salad, or Fetticus.—Carefully pick over two quarts of fetticus; reject all damaged leaves; wash, and dry in a napkin. Place in a salad-bowl; add a pint of minced celery and two hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine; finally add a plain dressing, toss, and serve.
Crab Salad.—Boil three dozen hard-shell crabs for twenty-five minutes. Let them cool, then remove the top shell and tail; quarter the remainder, and pick out the meat carefully with a nut-picker or kitchen fork. The large claws should not be forgotten, for they contain a dainty morsel; the fat that adheres to the top shell should not be overlooked. Cut up an amount of celery equal in bulk to the crab meat; mix both together with a few spoonfuls of plain salad dressing; then put it in a salad-bowl. Mask it with a mayonnaise; garnish with crab-claws, shrimps, and hard-boiled eggs, alternated with tufts of green, such as parsley, etc.
Cray-fish Salad.—Cray-fish (or craw-fish) resemble small lobsters; they are excellent as a salad, and are extensively used in garnishing fish salads. Boil two dozen cray-fish for fifteen minutes in water slightly salted; break the shells in two; pick out the tail part of each; cut it in two lengthwise; remove the black ligament. Put into a salad-bowl the small white leaves of a head of cabbage-lettuce; add the fish; pour over them a mayonnaise. Garnish with the head part of the shells, tufts of green, and hard-boiled eggs.
Cress Salad.—Cress is one of our best spring salads. Pick the leaves over carefully, removing the bruised leaves and all large stems. Mince a young spring onion; strew it over the cress, add a plain dressing, and serve.
Cucumber Salad.—If properly prepared, cucumbers are not apt to interfere with digestion. They should be gathered early in the morning and kept in a cool place until wanted. After peeling, slice them very thin; sprinkle a little salt over them; let stand ten minutes, and add cayenne, and equal parts of oil and vinegar. If allowed to remain in salt water any length of time, if oil is omitted, or if their natural juices are squeezed out of them, they become indigestible.
Currant Salad.—Put a pint of red currants in the centre of a compote. Around them make a border of a pint of white currants, and around these arrange a border of red raspberries. Set the dish on the table. Take a pint of sweet cream, add to it three tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar; stir it up to dissolve the sugar; while doing so add a tablespoonful each of brandy and curaçoa. Set the sauce on the table; dish up the fruit; and let each guest help himself to the sauce.
Dandelion Salad.—A dandelion salad is one of the healthiest of spring salads. Take two quarts of freshly gathered dandelions; wash them well; pick them over carefully; let stand in water over night, as this improves them. Drain, and dry in a napkin; place them in a salad-bowl; add two young spring onions, minced. Serve with a plain dressing.
Dumas Salad (Devised by Alexandre Dumas).—"Put in a salad-bowl a yolk of egg boiled hard; add a tablespoonful of oil, and make a paste of it; then add a few stalks of chervil chopped fine, a teaspoonful each of tunny and anchovy paste, a little French mustard, a small pickled cucumber chopped fine, the white of the egg chopped fine, and a little soy. Mix the whole well with two tablespoonfuls of wine vinegar; then add two or three steamed potatoes sliced, a few slices of beet, same of celeriac, same of rampion, salt and Hungarian pepper to taste; toss gently twenty minutes, then serve."