Chapter VII
. Vegetables should be cut in cubes or sometimes in slices. Meat, poultry, and shellfish should be cut in small pieces or chopped. The prepared meat should be mixed with some of the oil and acid and allowed to stand in an ice box for some time before it is dressed and arranged for serving. This process is called marinating in the cookbooks, and gives a flavor to the salad that it cannot have if a dressing is poured over the meat just before serving.
=Combinations in salad.=——Several well-known combinations will at once occur to you. Meat salads usually have a mixture of celery. Several vegetables may be used together, as beans and carrots, or carrots, peas, and string beans with lettuce. Apples, nuts, and celery make a pleasing combination. Indeed there would seem to be no end to the possibilities here.
[Illustration: FIG. 68.——A salad with salmon molded in gelatin. _Courtesy of Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College._]
=Serving and garnishing.=——The principle here is to make the dish attractive with as little labor as possible. Everything served as a garnish should be eatable. A bed of crisp dry lettuce leaves is the most attractive setting for any salad. When this is not procurable, cress makes an attractive border to a salad. Figure 68 shows you a salmon jelly molded in a ring and attractively served in lettuce. Figure 67 shows a cucumber placed on lettuce leaves, dressed with a French dressing and sprinkled with chopped peppers. The cucumber is sliced ready to serve; the slices being cut not entirely through the cucumber. This is rapidly prepared and is most attractive. When the salad is arranged in its dish, it should be put in the ice box and allowed to remain until it is time to take it to the table. The salad is sometimes served on individual plates.
=1. French dressing.=
_Ingredients._
Salt 1/2 teaspoonful Pepper 1/4 teaspoonful Vinegar 2 tablespoonfuls Olive oil 4 tablespoonfuls
_Method._
Mix the salt, pepper, and vinegar and stir in the olive oil slowly. A few drops of onion juice may be added.
=2. Mayonnaise dressing.=
_Ingredients._
Mustard 1 teaspoonful Salt 1 teaspoonful Powdered sugar 1 teaspoonful A few grains of cayenne Eggs Yolks of 2 Lemon juice 2 tablespoonfuls Vinegar 2 tablespoonfuls Olive oil 1-1/2 cups
_Method._
Stir together the eggs, mustard, salt, pepper, and sugar. Add the oil, a drop at a time, stirring and beating constantly. The back of a silver fork is a good thing for mixing mayonnaise, though some people prefer a Dover beater. As the dressing becomes very thick it should be thinned occasionally with vinegar and lemon, alternately, but never let it lose its consistency. After the first, the oil may be added more rapidly. All ingredients and utensils must be cold. If the weather is warm, the bowl should be surrounded with ice water. If the dressing should separate, begin with another yolk of egg and stir the separated mixture into it slowly, as before. Set the bowl in a cold place and it should keep for many days.
=3. Boiled dressing.=
_Ingredients._
Eggs 2 Mustard 1/2 teaspoonful Salt 1/2 tablespoonful Sugar 1/2 tablespoonful Vinegar 3 tablespoonfuls Hot water 1/2 cup Butter 1 tablespoonful A few grains of cayenne
_Method._
Mix the dry ingredients and beat with the eggs until light. Add the vinegar and water and cook in a double boiler, stirring constantly until thick and smooth. Remove from the fire, stir in the butter and set away to cool. A little cream added after the dressing cools is a great addition. Sour cream may be used instead of the water, in which case less vinegar and butter should be used.
=4. Potato salad.=
_Ingredients._
Potatoes, cold-boiled or baked Parsley or onion juice Egg, hard-boiled, olives, pickled beets, etc. French dressing
_Method._
Cut the cold-boiled or baked potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes. Marinate (_i.e._ mix and let stand) with French dressing. Chopped parsley or onion juice may be mixed with potatoes. Arrange in a mound and garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg, olives, pickled beets, etc.
=5. Chicken salad.=
_Ingredients._
Cold-boiled or roast fowl Celery, 1/2 as much as fowl French dressing Mayonnaise or boiled dressing Olives
_Method._
Cut cold-boiled or roast fowl in 1/2-inch cubes. Add to this 1/2 as much celery which has been washed, scraped, and cut into cubes. Marinate with French dressing. Just before serving moisten with mayonnaise or boiled salad dressing. Garnish with celery tips and olives.
=6. Waldorf salad.=
_Ingredients._
Apples, tart and juicy Celery, 1/2 as much as apples Mayonnaise dressing Lettuce leaves
_Method._
Select tart, juicy apples. Cut in quarters, pare and core and cut in 1/2-inch cubes. Add half as much celery, washed, scraped, and cut into cubes. Mix with boiled or mayonnaise dressing and serve cold on lettuce leaves. If handsome red apples can be had, they may be washed and polished and a slice cut from the stem end and the apple used as a cup after scooping out the inside to use for a filling with the celery. Serve on a lettuce leaf. Chopped nuts may be mixed with the apple and celery if desired.
=7. Stuffed tomato salad.=
_Ingredients._
Tomatoes, medium sized Boiling water Salt Cucumbers (or celery) Mayonnaise dressing Lettuce leaves
_Method._
Cover medium sized tomatoes with boiling water for a minute and remove the skin. Cut a thin slice from the top and take out part of the seeds and pulp. Sprinkle inside of the tomato with salt, invert, and let stand one half hour. Fill tomatoes with cucumbers (or celery) cut in small cubes and moistened with mayonnaise dressing. Arrange on lettuce leaves and garnish top with mayonnaise dressing.
_Laboratory management._——1/2 egg yolk (1 teaspoonful) and 1/4 cup of olive oil is as small a quantity as is practicable to use in making the mayonnaise. This quantity made by groups of two works out well as the process of adding the oil drop by drop is difficult for a beginner working alone. The boiled dressing works in well as a variation of the boiled custard.
DESSERTS
The dessert in this country includes the sweet dish, or the fruit at the end of the meal. In simple meals the dessert is usually one of the two, although in more elaborate meals fruit is served after the sweet dish, and sometimes crackers and cheese are served at the last. From the point of view of nutrition and digestibility this is more than is necessary, and you will notice that when both are served, the fruit is often declined. Like the salad, the dessert may be made from a large variety of materials and bears different names. There are hot puddings and cold puddings, pies and tarts, jellies and ices and ice creams. It is very interesting to read over the many dishes of this class in a cookbook and to attempt to classify them. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a cookbook of the eighteenth century, you will find that much labor was given to the preparation of elaborate structures which served as table ornaments; even now you will find French cooks who spend much time in making elaborate displays of their skill. For everyday life the dessert should be attractive to the eye and yet simple.
=Materials used in desserts.=
_Eggs, milk, and cream_; these are important and are used in custards, in dishes stiffened with gelatin or thickened with cornstarch, or in ice cream.
_Breadstuffs._——Cake and sponge cake, bread crumbs and sliced bread, are valuable in desserts. Bread pudding may be made a very delicious dish. Bread may be combined with fruit in the shape of an escalloped dish. Baking-powder biscuits, crust, and shortcake are also used.
_Other starchy substances._——These are cornstarch, arrowroot, sago, tapioca and manioca.
_Fruits._——Raw and cooked fruits of every possible kind. A few fruits like the lemon, orange, grapefruit, and melon are not cooked. For preparing fruit served alone, see