This salad dressing was invented by the Rev. Sydney Smith, whose genius as a writer and a wit is well-known on both sides the Atlantic. If exactly followed, it will be found very fine on trial; no peculiar flavour predominating, but excellent as a whole. The above directions are taken from a manuscript receipt given by Mr. Smith to an American gentleman then in London.
In preparing this, or any other salad-dressing, take care not to use that excessively pungent and deleterious combination of drugs which is now so frequently imposed upon the public, as the best white wine vinegar. In reality, it has no vinous material about it, and it may be known by its violent and disagreeable sharpness, which overpowers and destroys the taste (and also the substance) of whatever it is mixed with. And it is also very unwholesome. Its colour is always very pale, and it is nearly as clear as water. No one should buy or use it. The first quality of real cider vinegar is good for all purposes.
The above receipt may be tried for lobster-dressing.
LETTUCE CHICKEN SALAD.—Having skinned a pair of cold fowls, remove the fat, and carve them as if for eating, cut all the flesh entirely from the bones, and either mince it or divide it into small shreds. Mix with it a little smoked tongue or cold ham, grated rather than chopped. Have ready one or two fine fresh lettuces, picked, washed, drained, and cut small. Put the cut lettuce on a dish, (spreading it evenly,) or into a large bowl, and place upon it the minced chicken in a close heap in the centre. For the dressing, mix together the following ingredients, in the proportion of the yolks of four eggs well beaten; a tea-spoonful of powdered white sugar; a salt-spoon of cayenne; (no salt if you have ham or tongue with the chicken;) two tea-spoonfuls of made mustard; two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, and four table-spoonfuls of salad oil. Stir this mixture well: put it into a small sauce-pan, set it over the fire, and let it boil three minutes, (not more,) stirring it all the time. Then set it to cool. When quite cold, cover with it thickly the heap of chicken in the centre of the salad. To ornament it, have ready half a dozen or more hard-boiled eggs, which after the shell is peeled off, must be thrown directly into a pan of cold water to prevent their turning blue. Cut each egg (white and yolk together) lengthways into four long pieces of equal size and shape; lay the pieces upon the salad all round the heap of chicken, and close to it; placing them so as to follow each other round in a slanting direction, something in the form of a circular wreath of leaves. Have ready, also, some very red cold beet, cut into small cones or points all of equal size; arrange them in a circle upon the lettuce, outside of the circle of cut egg. To be decorated in this manner, the salad should be placed in a dish rather than a bowl. In helping it, give each person a portion of every thing, and they will mix them together on their plates.
This salad should be prepared immediately before dinner or supper, as standing long will injure it. The colder it is the better.
ITALIAN CHICKEN SALAD.—Make a dressing in the proportion of the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, mashed or pounded fine; a salt-spoon of salt; and the same quantity of mustard, and of cayenne; and a salt-spoon of powdered white sugar; four table-spoonfuls of salad-oil; and two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, (tarragon vinegar will be best.) Simmer this dressing over the fire, but do not let it come to a boil. Stir it all the time. Take a sufficiency of the white meat of cold fowls, and pull or cut it into flakes. Pile it in the middle of a dish, and pour the salad-dressing over it. Have ready two fine fresh lettuces that have been laid in cold water. Strip off the outside leaves; cut up the best part of the lettuces, and arrange it evenly in a ridge, or circular heap all round the pile of chicken in the centre. On the top of the ridge of lettuce, place the whites of the eggs, cut into rings and laid round so as to form a chain. Of course, a portion of the lettuce is to be helped with the chicken.
A lobster salad may be made as above; also a salad of minced prawns or crabs.
Persons who have no dislike to a very slight flavour of garlic, will find this chicken-salad improved, by a clove of garlic being lightly rubbed over the dish while empty.
In dressing and helping every sort of salad, use a boxwood spoon and fork.
TARRAGON SAUCE.—Take a large handful of tarragon leaves, stripped from the stalks: put them into a small sauce-pan with half a pint of boiling water, and four blades of mace. Cover the sauce-pan, and let it stew slowly till the liquid is reduced to one half, and the flavour of the tarragon is well drawn out. Then strain it; and put the liquid into a clean sauce-pan. Mix together a table-spoonful of flour, and six ounces of butter, and when it has been well-stirred, and beaten smoothly, stir it into the tarragon water. Place the sauce-pan over the fire, and watch it closely. When it has simmered well, and is just beginning to boil, take it off immediately and transfer it to a sauce-boat. Eat it with any sort of boiled meat or poultry, or with boiled fish. The tarragon will give it a fine flavour.
You may add to the tarragon, while stewing, a small white onion cut in slices.
This sauce may be coloured a fine green, by pounding in a mortar a sufficient quantity of young parsley or spinach. Then take some of the juice, and add it to the liquid after you have strained it from the tarragon leaves, and before you put in the butter.
Tarragon is an herb well worth cultivating. It grows from a slip or root, and is easily raised. The leaves are fit to gather in July and August. They impart a fine and peculiar flavour to sauces, soups, and salad; and are indispensable in making French mustard. Tarragon may be kept a year or more by drying it in bunches. Also by filling a bottle half with tarragon leaves, and half with good vinegar.
FINE LEMON PICKLE.—Take some fresh ripe lemons, and (having first rolled each one under your hand upon the table) cut them into quarters, and remove all the seeds. Put the pieces of lemon, with all the juice, into a stone jar. Have ready a sufficient quantity of excellent vinegar to cover the lemon well; the vinegar being boiled with a clove or two of garlic; some blades of mace; a broken up nutmeg; whole pepper, (the white or peeled pepper-corns will be best;) some cayenne or bird-pepper; and a very little salt. The proportion of these ingredients may be according to your taste, but the seasoning should be high, yet not so as to overpower the lemon-flavour. Having boiled the vinegar, with all these articles, about ten minutes, pour the whole boiling hot upon the lemon in the jar, and immediately cover it closely. Let the jar stand three weeks in the chimney-corner, stirring it frequently, and setting it occasionally in the oven after the baking is done. Then roll a sheet of blotting paper into a cone, pinning up the side, and folding the cone so as to close up the pointed end. Have ready some small clean black bottles. Set the paper cone into the mouth of the bottle, and through it filter the liquid. Seal the corks. This will be found an excellent sauce for fish, or any sort of white meat; and will keep for years.
PEACH PICKLES.—Stir two pounds of white sugar into two quarts of the best cider vinegar. Boil it ten minutes, skimming it well. Have ready some large fully-ripe peaches; rub them with a clean flannel to take off the down, and stick four cloves into each. Put them into glass or white-ware jars, (rather more than half-full,) and pour on them the vinegar boiling hot. Cover them closely, set them in a cool place, and let them rest for a week. Then pour off the liquid, and give it another boiling. Afterwards pour it again on the peaches; cover them closely, corking the jars, and tying leather over each, and put them away till wanted for use.
Instead of cloves you may stick the peaches with blades of mace, six blades to each peach.
Apricots may be pickled as above. Morella cherries also, using mace instead of cloves.
If you find a coat of mould on the top of a jar of pickles, remove it carefully, and do not throw away the pickles, as they may still be quite good beneath.
CUCUMBER CATCHUP.—For a small quantity, take twelve fine full-grown cucumbers, and lay them an hour in cold water. Then pare them, and grate them down into a deep dish. Grate also six small onions, and mix them with the grated cucumber. Season the mixture to your taste, with pepper, salt, and vinegar; making it of the consistence of