SERVING SALADS
31. Several different ways of serving salads are in practice. Perhaps the most convenient method of serving this dish is to prepare individual portions of it on salad plates in the kitchen and then set these on the table at each person's place. If a simple table service is followed, the salad may be put on the table at the same time as the rest of the meal. The correct position for the salad plate is at the left-hand side of the dinner plate and just a little nearer to the edge of the table than the bread-and-butter plate. The plates on which salad is served should be large enough to prevent the difficulty in eating that would be experienced if the plate were a trifle small. It should therefore be remembered that the salad plate is the next larger in size to the bread-and-butter plate.
32. In case individual salads are to be prepared, the plate should first be garnished with whatever vegetable green is selected for this purpose. If lettuce is to be used, a single leaf, several very small center leaves, or a small quantity of shredded lettuce will be sufficient, for a great deal of garnish is never desirable. In case the leaves are very large, one may be divided in half and each part utilized. Then the salad ingredients, which have already been combined, should be piled in a neat heap on top of the garnish either with or without the salad dressing. If the salad dressing is not mixed with the materials, a spoonful or two of it should be placed on top of them. Sometimes, for the effect of color, additional garnish of some kind is used. For a vegetable or a meat salad, this may be egg yolk put through a sieve, slices of hard-cooked eggs, olives or radishes cut in fancy shapes, or strips of pimiento; and for fruit salad, it may be cherries or colored fruits cut into various fancy shapes.
33. Another method of serving this dish is to place the entire salad on a rather large, deep plate, such as a chop plate or a regular salad dish, and then serve it at the table whenever it is desired. When this is done, the dish that is used should be well garnished with a bed of vegetable green in the same way that a small individual plate is garnished. Then the salad ingredients should be nicely arranged on this bed, and the dressing, if it has not already been mixed with them, should be poured over the whole. In serving salad in this way, there is much more chance of arranging the ingredients symmetrically and garnishing the salad attractively than when it is served on small plates. The large plate containing the salad, together with the small salad plates, should be placed before the hostess or whoever is to serve the salad. When it is served, a leaf of the lettuce or other green used for garnishing should first be put on each salad plate and the salad should be served on this. A large fork and a large spoon are needed when salad is served in this manner.
34. Still another, way of serving salad, and perhaps a more attractive one than either of those already described, consists in arranging the ingredients in a salad bowl, placing this on the table, and serving from the bowl to the salad plates. In this method, a French dressing is generally used, and this is often mixed at the table and added to the salad just before it is put on the small plates. Such a salad can be made very attractive, and it should be remembered above all things that the appearance of a salad is its great asset until it is eaten and that an artistically made salad always helps to make the meal more satisfactory.
35. In a dinner, the salad is generally served as a separate course, but in such a meal as luncheon it may be used as the main dish. If it is used as a separate course, it should be served immediately after the dinner course has been removed from the table. The salad plate should be placed directly before the person served. Forks especially designed with a wide prong on one side and known as salad forks are the right type of fork to serve with this dish, but if none are available ordinary table forks of a small size may be used. It should be remembered that the salad should not be cut with the knife at the table, but should be eaten entirely with the fork.
SALAD DRESSINGS AND THEIR PREPARATION
36. As has been implied, various salad dressings may be made to serve with salads. The kind of dressing to select depends both on the variety of salad served and on the personal preference of those to whom it is served. Some of these contain only a few ingredients and are comparatively simple to make, while others are complex and involve considerable work in their making. Whether simple or elaborate, however, the salad dressing should be carefully chosen, so that it will blend well with the ingredients of the salad with which it is used.
A number of recipes for salad dressings are here given. They are taken up before the recipes for salads so that the beginner will be familiar with the different varieties when they are mentioned in connection with the salads. As many of the recipes as possible should be tried, not only for the knowledge that will be gained, but also for the practical experience.
37. FRENCH DRESSING.--A dressing that is very simply made and that can probably be used with a greater variety of salads than any other is French dressing. For instance, it may be used with any vegetable salad, with salads containing almost any combination of fruit, and with meat, fish, and egg salads. It is true, of course, that fruit-salad dressing blends very well with fruit salad and is considered by most persons to be more delicious than French dressing, but if one is pressed for time and does not have the necessary ingredients for making any other kind, this one may nearly always be utilized. In addition to these uses, French dressing, as has been previously explained, may also be used to marinate salads before mayonnaise or other dressing is mixed with them. A point that should always be remembered in the making of this dressing or any other dressing containing oil is that the flavor of the oil has much to do with the desirability of the finished dressing.