Salad Materials

The salad maker has a wide range of materials from which to compound her appetizing and wholesome dish. Its possibilities include not only nearly all vegetables and fruits, but also flesh, fish, fowl, and nuts in great variety.

For the hot days the limit should extend no further than the succulent vegetables and fruits. The other foods are too rich in heatproducing properties for this purpose. If one keeps comfortably cool during warm weather the diet must be cut down, at least that part of it which contributes to the animal heat of the body.

Nothing of questionable quality should enter into the composition of a salad. The vegetables or fruit, as the case may be, should not only be fresh and without the slightest blemish to mar the flavor and looks, but crisp, cold, and refreshing.

When uncooked vegetables are used, after being thoroughly cleansed with very cold water, they should be dried in a soft towel without crushing and kept in a cold place until needed.

For the dressing, genuine olive oil should be used; and the vinegar must be pure, that made from tarragon herbs being best for the purpose, furnishing, in addition to the acid necessary for the emulsification and assimilation of the oil, an agreeable flavor to the dressing.

A summer salad should never be dressed with any more elaborate preparation than a mixture of oil and vinegar or lemonjuice, seasoned with salt and pepper a very simple compound; yet, according to the Spanish proverb, requiring four persons to make it: a spendthrift to bring the oil, a miser the vinegar, a man of judgment the seasoning, and a madman to do the stirring when mixed with the salad. Very good proportions for this dressing French dressing, it is called are: Four tablespoons of olive oil, one tablespoon of vinegar, half a teaspoon of salt, and oneeighth of a teaspoon of white pepper.

To blend these ingredients properly, that all may be incorporated, yet no peculiar flavor predominate, mix the salt and pepper add one tablespoon of oil mix well add half a tablespoon of vinegar blend. Then add the remainder of the oil, a few drops at a time, alternately with the vinegar. Variety may be furnished by the addition of a little lemonjuice or a few drops of the essence of anchovy. If onion flavor is liked, rub the salad bowl while empty with a garlic clove or a bit of onion. Use only a wooden spoon for salad dressings.

To those who prefer tickling the palate to catering to the digestive apparatus of the inner man, this French dressing does not appeal, something more elaborate being demanded. In such homes the housewife will do well to become familiar with the following formula, for two reasons it is a really good dressing; then, too, it will keep indefinitely in a cool place.

American Beauty Salad

Soak one ounce of gelatine half an hour in enough cold water to cover it. Bring to boil one slice of onion, a bay leaf, and half a teaspoon of celery seed in one pint of cold water. Add half a cup of rich stock, two tablespoons of lemonjuice, season with salt and pepper, add gelatine, and strain. Half fill individual molds with cold cooked beet, turnip, and potato cubes. Fill up with the jelly colored red with vegetable coloring. Garnish with green and serve with mayonnaise.

Asparagus Salad

Boil asparagus till tender, or use canned asparagus, some of which is excellent. Cut off all the hard and inedible portion, lay the asparagus in a salad bowl, having the tips all one way; pour over a French dressing, and serve thoroughly cold, putting each individual portion on a lettuce leaf if you have the lettuce at hand.

Banana Salad

Red bananas are preferable to the yellow for all uses, and especially for this salad. Peel and cut the fruit in small pieces and, if you have it, add pineapple cut in small pieces, and also strawberries. Squeeze out and mix the juice of two oranges and one lemon, add sugar to taste not enough to make it sweet and pour over the cut bananas and other fruit. Chill and serve cold. The fruit juice is daintier if flavored with a tablespoon of wine and a teaspoon of brandy, but the everyday use of such flavorings we do not recommend.

Baked Bean Salad

Take two cups of baked beans and put over them a mixture made of one tablespoon of vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, one tablespoon of oil, two tablespoons of minced onion and one tablespoon of chopped celery.

StringBean Salad

String and break young beans and their pods into halfinch lengths. Cook tender in salted water. Drain, add a little chopped onion, pile in lettuce cups, dress with French dressing, and garnish with tiny beet cubes. [See illustration, Plate XV.]

New Beet Salad

The new beets must be thoroughly boiled nothing is worse in the way of food than a halfcooked beet. When done cut them while hot in rather thin slices and marinate them that is, let them lie for an hour or two in a mixture of two tablespoons oil, one spoon vinegar, and a small pinch of salt. More than this must be used if there is to be a large dish of salad. When ready for serving put them in the salad dish with some very young and tender leaves of uncooked dandelion. Dress with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper of the French dressing.

Cabbage Salad

Chop white cabbage fine and mix it with a thin mayonnaise dressing. Set it where it will keep cool, and serve on a lettuce leaf with or without chopped nuts. Pass cheese wafers with this salad.