Young onions stewed, see [No. 296].
Salads.—(No. 138*, also [No. 372]).
Those who desire to see this subject elaborately illustrated, we refer to “Evelyn’s Acetaria,” a discourse of Sallets, a 12mo. of 240 pages. London, 1699.
Mr. E. gives us “an account of seventy-two herbs proper and fit to make sallet with;” and a table of thirty-five, telling their seasons and proportions. “In the composure of a sallet, every plant should come in to bear its part, like the notes in music: thus the comical Master Cook introduced by Damoxenus, when asked, ‘what harmony there was in meats?’ ‘the very same,’ says he, ‘as the 3d, 5th, and 8th have to one another in music: the main skill lies in this, not to mingle’ (‘sapores minimè consentientes’). ‘Tastes not well joined, inelegant,’ as our Paradisian bard directs Eve, when dressing a sallet for her angelical guest, in Milton’s Paradise Lost.”
He gives the following receipt for the oxoleon:—
“Take of clear and perfectly good oyl-olive three parts; of sharpest vinegar (sweetest of all condiments, for it incites appetite, and causes hunger, which is the best sauce), limon, or juice of orange, one part; and therein let steep some slices of horseradish, with a little salt. Some, in a separate vinegar, gently bruise a pod of Ginny pepper, and strain it to the other; then add as much mustard as will lie upon a half-crown piece. Beat and mingle these well together with the yelk of two new-laid eggs boiled hard, and pour it over your sallet, stirring it well together. The super-curious insist that the knife with which sallet herb is cut must be of silver. Some who are husbands of their oyl, pour at first the oyl alone, as more apt to communicate and diffuse its slipperiness, than when it is mingled and beaten with the acids, which they pour on last of all; and it is incredible how small a quantity of oyl thus applied is sufficient to imbue a very plentiful assembly of sallet herbs.”
Obs. Our own directions to prepare and dress salads will be found under [No. 372].
[155-*] “Next to bread, there is no vegetable article, the preparation of which, as food, deserves to be more attended to, than the potato.”—Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Health, vol. i. p. 354.
“By the analysis of potato, it appears that 16 ounces contained 11 1/2 ounces of water, and the 4 1/2 ounces of solid parts remaining, afforded scarce a drachm of earth.”—Parmentier’s Obs. on Nutritive Vegetables, 8vo. 1783, p. 112.
[155-†] Or the small ones will be done to pieces before the large ones are boiled enough.