446. Among the principal salad herbs we may reckon lettuce, of which the white cos in summer, and in winter the brown Dutch cos and brown cos, are the best; endive, of which the curled leaf is preferred; corn-salad and water-cress, both of which are preferred when the leaves have a brownish cast; mustard and cress, or small salad-ing, of which a succession may be kept up through the spring months; celery, young, crisp, and well blanched. All or any of these may be united in the composition of a salad. Cucumbers, either sliced by themselves, or mixed with other articles. Radishes give a lively appearance, by way of garnish, to a salad, but are not themselves improved by dressing. Red-beet also is much in request for winter salads, especially mixed with endive. Young onions or escalions are liked by many people, but much disliked by others; therefore they should not be mixed in the bowl, but sent up on a small dish by themselves. Sorrel gives a pleasing acid taste; and pimpernel, or burnet, gives a flavour resembling that of cucumber. Dandelion, if well grown and well blanched with a tile or slate (in the same manner as endive), is equally good and wholesome.

Let the ingredients of the salad be well picked, and washed and dried; but do not add the dressing till just before eating, as it is apt to make the salad flabby. The most simple way of dressing a salad is, perhaps, the best; certainly the most wholesome; merely salt, oil, and vinegar, to taste; one table-spoonful of the best olive oil to three of vinegar, is a good proportion. For those who do not like oil, or when it is not at hand, the following may be used as a substitute: The gravy that has dropped from roasted meat, good sweet thick cream, a bit of fresh butter rubbed up with fine moist sugar, or just melted, without either flour or water; great care must be taken in thus melting the butter, or it will be apt to oil or curdle; it must be shaken one way only, and kept near the fire no longer than is necessary to dissolve the lumps - on no account suffered to boil. Eggs boiled for salads require ten or twelve minutes boiling, and should immediately be plunged into cold water.

In the more complicated preparation of a salad, great care must be taken that every additional ingredient is thoroughly well blended before proceeding to add another.

Prepare the dressings in the bowl, and add the herbs; after stirring them in, take care that all the various colours are displayed. The coral of a lobster or a crab makes a beautiful variety with a lettuce, onion, radish, beet, and white of egg. The following are the ordinary proportions, but various tastes will suggest variety: The yolks of two eggs rubbed very smooth with a very rich cream; if perfectly rubbed and quite cold, they will form a smooth paste without straining; a tea-spoonful each of thick mustard, salt, and powdered loaf-sugar, or a little cayenne instead of mustard, less than half of the mustard; when these are well rubbed in, add two table-spoonfuls of oil (or whichever of its substitutes is adopted), and then four spoonfuls of the best white wine vinegar; then lay the herbs lightly on.

Cucumbers are only to be pared and sliced, with slices of onion, which correct their crudity, and render them less unwholesome; the pickle for them consists of pepper, salt, oil, and vinegar.