Add the water, and boil up once. Place the sauce-pan in another of boiling water. Have the eggs and seasoning beaten together. Add the vinegar to the boiling mixture, and stir in the beaten egg. Cook four minutes, stirring all the while. Cool and use. If corked tightly, this will keep two weeks in a cold place.
French Salad Dressing.
Three table-spoonfuls of oil, one of vinegar, one salt-spoonful of salt, one-half a salt-spoonful of pepper. Put the salt and pepper in a cup, and add one table-spoonful of the oil. When thoroughly mixed, add the remainder of the oil and the vinegar. This is dressing enough for a salad for six persons. If you like the flavor of onion, grate a little juice into the dressing. The juice is obtained by first peeling the onion, and then grating with a coa.r.s.e grater, using a good deal of pressure. Two strokes will give about two drops of juice--enough for this rule.
Chicken Salad.
Have cold roasted or boiled chicken free of skin, fat and bones. Place on a board, and cut in long, thin strips, and cut these into dice.
Place in an earthen bowl (there should be two quarts), and season with four table-spoonfuls of vinegar, two of oil, one teaspoonful of salt and one-half of a teaspoonful of pepper. Set away in a cold place for two or three hours. Sc.r.a.pe and wash enough of the tender white celery to make one quart. Cut this, with a sharp knife, in pieces about half an inch thick. Put these in the ice chest until serving time. Make the mayonnaise dressing. Mix the chicken and celery together, and add half of the dressing. Arrange in a salad bowl or on a flat dish, and pour the remainder of the dressing over it. Garnish with white celery leaves. Or, have a jelly border, and arrange the salad in this. Half celery and half lettuce is often used for chicken salad. Many people, when preparing for a large company, use turkey instead of chicken, there being so much more meat in the same number of pounds of the raw material; but the salad is not nearly so nice as with chicken. If, when the chicken or fowl is cooked, it is allowed to cool in the water in which it is boiled, it will be juicier and tenderer than if taken from the water as soon as done.
Lobster Salad.
Cut up and season the lobster the same as chicken. Break the leaves from a head of lettuce, one by one, and wash them singly in a large pan of cold water. Put them in a pan of ice water for about ten minutes, and then shake in a wire basket, to free them of water. Place in the ice chest until serving time. When ready to serve, put two or three leaves together in the form of a sh.e.l.l, and arrange these sh.e.l.ls on a flat dish. Mix one-half of the mayonnaise dressing with the lobster. Put a table-spoonful of this in each cl.u.s.ter of leaves.
Finish with a teaspoonful of the dressing on each spoonful of lobster.
This is an exceedingly inviting dish. Another method is to cut or tear the leaves rather coa.r.s.e, and mix with the lobster. Garnish the border of the dish with whole leaves. There should be two-thirds lobster to one-third lettuce.
Salmon Salad.
One quart of cooked salmon, two heads of lettuce, two table-spoonfuls of lemon juice, one of vinegar, two of capers, one teaspoonful of salt, one-third of a teaspoonful of pepper, one cupful of mayonnaise dressing, or the French dressing. Break up the salmon with two silver forks. Add to it the salt, pepper, vinegar and lemon juice. Put in the ice chest or some other cold place, for two or three hours. Prepare the lettuce as directed for lobster salad. At serving time, pick out leaves enough to border the dish. Cut or tear the remainder in pieces, and arrange these in the centre of a flat dish. On them heap the salmon lightly, and cover with the dressing. Now sprinkle on the capers. Arrange the whole leaves at the base, and, if you choose, lay one-fourth of a thin slice of lemon on each leaf.
Oyster Salad.
One pint of celery, one quart of oysters, one-third of a cupful of mayonnaise dressing, three table-spoonfuls of vinegar, one of oil, half a teaspoonful of salt, one-eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper, one table-spoonful of lemon juice. Let the oysters come to a boil in their own liquor. Skim well and drain. Season them with the oil, salt, pepper, vinegar and lemon juice. When cold, put in the ice chest for at least two hours. Sc.r.a.pe and wash the whitest and tenderest part of the celery, and, with a sharp knife, cut in _very_ thin slices.
Put in a bowl with a large lump of ice, and set in the ice chest until serving time. When ready to serve, drain the celery, and mix with the oysters and half of the dressing. Arrange in the dish, pour the remainder of the dressing over, and garnish with white celery leaves.
Sardine Salad.
Arrange one quart of any kind of cooked fish on a bed of crisp lettuce. Split six sardines, and if there are any bones, remove them.
Cover the fish with the sardine dressing. Over this put the sardines, having the ends meet in the centre of the dish. At the base, of the dish mate a wreath of thin slices of lemon. Garnish with parsley or lettuce, and serve immediately.
Shad Roe Salad.
Three shad roe, boiled in salted water twenty minutes. When cold, cut in _thin_ slices. Season and set away, the same as salmon. Serve the same as salmon, except omit the capers, and use chopped pickled beet.
Salads of Fish.
All kinds of cooked fish can be served in salads. Lettuce is the best green salad to use with them, but all green vegetables, when cooked and cold, can be added to the fish and dressing. The sardine and French dressings are the best to use with fish.
Polish Salad.
One quart of cold game or poultry, cut very fine; the French dressing, four hard-boiled eggs, one large, or two small heads of lettuce.
Moisten the meat with the dressing, and let it stand in the ice chest two or three hours. Rub the yolks of the eggs to a powder, and chop the whites very fine. Wash the lettuce and put in the ice chest until serving time. When ready to serve, put the lettuce leaves together and cut in long, narrow strips with a _sharp_ knife, or tear it with a fork. Arrange on a dish, heap the meat in the centre, and sprinkle the egg over all.
Beef Salad.
One quart of cold roasted or stewed beef--it must be very tender, double the rule for French dressing, one table-spoonful of chopped parsley, and one of onion juice, to be mixed with the dressing. Cut the meat in _thin_ slices, and then into little squares. Place a layer in the salad bowl, sprinkle with parsley and dressing, and continue this until all the meat is used. Garnish with parsley, and keep in a cold place for one of two hours. Any kind of meat can be used instead of beef.
Meat and Potato Salad.
Prepare the meat as directed for beef salad, using, however, one-half the quant.i.ty. Add one pint of cold boiled potatoes, cut in thin slices, and dressing. Garnish, and set away as before. These salads can be used as soon as made, but the flavor is improved by their standing an hour or more.
Bouquet Salad.
Four hard-boiled eggs, finely chopped; one head of lettuce, or one pint of water cresses; a large bunch of nasturtium blossoms or b.u.t.tercups, the French dressing, with the addition of one teaspoonful of sugar. Wash the lettuce or cresses, and throw into ice water. When crisp, take out, and shake out all the water. Cut or tear in pieces.
Put a layer in the bowl, with here and there a flower, and sprinkle in half of the egg and half the dressing. Repeat this. Arrange the flowers in a wreath, and put a few in the centre. Serve immediately.
Cauliflower Salad.
Boil one large cauliflower with two quarts of water and one table- spoonful of salt, for half an hour. Take up and drain. When cold, divide into small tufts. Arrange on the centre of a dish and garnish with a border of strips of pickled beet. Pour cream dressing, or a cupful of mayonnaise dressing, over the cauliflower. Arrange a star of the pickled beet in the centre. Serve immediately.
Asparagus Salad.
Boil two bunches of asparagus with one quart of water and one table- spoonful of salt, for twenty minutes. Take up and drain on a sieve.
When cold, cut off the tender points, and arrange diem on the dish.
Pour on cream salad dressing.
Asparagus and Salmon Salad.
Prepare the asparagus as before directed. Season a quart of cooked salmon with one teaspoonful of salt, one-third of a teaspoonful of pepper, three table-spoonfuls of oil, one of vinegar and two of lemon juice. Let this stand in the ice chest at least two hours. Arrange the salmon in the centre of the dish and the asparagus points around it.
Cover the fish with one cupful of mayonnaise dressing. Garnish the dish with points of lemon. Green peas can be used instead of asparagus.
Cuc.u.mber Salad.
Cut about one inch off of the point of the cuc.u.mber, and pare. (The bitter juice is in the point, and if this is not cut off before paring, the knife carries the flavor all through the cuc.u.mber.) Cut in thin slices, cover with cold water, and let stand half an hour. Drain, and season with French dressing. If oil is not liked it can be omitted.
Tomato Salad.
Pare ripe tomatoes (which should be very cold), and cut in thin slices. Arrange on a flat dish. Put one teaspoonful of mayonnaise dressing in the centre of each slice. Place a delicate border of parsley around the dish, and a sprig here and there between the slices of tomato.
Cabbage Salad.