Fancy Vegetable Salad With Dressing

Scrape, wash, and cut into long slices one goodsized carrot; lay several slices over one another, and cut them into small strips like straws. Place the carrots in a saucepan, cover with boiling water, add half a teaspoon of sugar and cook until tender. Drain and set aside to cool. Cook half a pint of green peas in water with a little salt; when done, drain and add them to the carrots. Add to these half a pint of finecut boiled potatoes, half a pint of finely shaved cabbage, two finecut boiled beets, and three finecut hardboiled eggs.

Make the salad dressing as follows: Put the yolks of three eggs into a bowl, set in cracked ice, stir three minutes, adding slowly one cup of oil while stirring constantly. Then add one teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of English mustard, and, as the dressing thickens, add slowly one tablespoon of white vinegar, one tablespoon of finechopped onion and capers, one tablespoon of tarragon vinegar, and half a pint of whipped cream. Mix half of this dressing with the vegetables, dress the salad in the center of a salad dish, cover it with the remaining dressing, and garnish with finechopped beets, the whites of hardboiled eggs, caviare, and put a small bunch of chives in the center.

Waldorf Salad

This is one of the cheapest of all salads. It requires sour, crisp apples, cut in thin slices, and finely chopped celery. Blend lightly with a fine oil mayonnaise, garnish with the blanched feathery tops of the celery and scatter with halves of English walnuts. See "The Boon of an Apple Barrel," page 345.

Watercress Salad

Pick out sprightly, young dresses. Break off the bruised and yellowed leaves, and wash in several waters, so that it is freed from all dust, sand, clinging insects, and also from any typhoid fever germs. Remember that watercress grows in small country streams, where the water is sometimes sluggish, and there is chance of its being contaminated by bad drainage. Drop the cress lightly in a salad bowl and pour over it French dressing. Toss it with a wooden fork and spoon till all parts of the cress have taken up the dressing and serve cold.

Salad Dressings

Cream Salad Dressing

Bring to boil in an earthen dish half a cup of vinegar, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper. Beat well the yolks of two eggs, gradually add the hot vinegar, stir, and also add three tablespoons of oil or butter, half a tablespoon of mustard, a teaspoon of sugar, and, lastly, six tablespoons of cream. Keep up a vigorous stirring as each ingredient is added.

Mild Cream Dressing

A mild cream dressing adds a relishing finish to vegetable salads and is preferred by many persons to a more piquant one. To make it, heat one cup of cream almost to boiling stir in one teaspoon of flour, wet up with a little cold milk or water boil two minutes, stirring constantly add two tablespoons of powdered sugar, stir well, then take off the fire. When half cold, beat in the whipped whites of two eggs; set on ice until quite cold then season with one teaspoon of salt, half as much black pepper, and a small quantity of prepared mustard. Beat the whole thoroughly then whip in two tablespoons of salad oil or soft butter. Just before pouring the dressing over the salad add, gradually, three tablespoons of vinegar.

Unless salads are mixed at table which is often done when the French dressing is used they present a more inviting appearance if arranged at once for individual serving instead of being dished the second time.

Next in importance to the making of a salad ranks its garnishing. How a dish looks exerts a wonderful influence upon the appetite; For this purpose one may use fringed celery stalks, fresh lettuce leaves, hardboiled eggs, blood beets (boiled, then cut into various shapes), nasturtiums, powdered tarragon leaves, and the kernels of English walnuts.

Sour Cream Dressing

To a cup of fresh sour cream allow a tablespoon of lemonjuice. Add to the juice, salt, cayenne pepper, and dry mustard to your taste. Stir these four ingredients together and then beat into the cup of cream till the cream puffs. Pour over the cold salad green and serve at once.

French Dressing

Select a small bowl for the table, put into it one saltspoon of salt, a dash of pepper, a little dry mustard, and one saltspoon of sugar. To this add, gradually, a tablespoon of olive oil, stirring, to dissolve the ingredients. Stir smooth, and add two more tablespoons of olive oil, and one tablespoon of vinegar. Red pepper can be used if preferred, also more seasoning, if the taste requires.

Horseradish Dressing

Mix three tablespoons of fresh grated horseradish with a tablespoon of vinegar or of lemonjuice and a pinch of salt. Then stir in three tablespoons of whipped cream and a dash of cayenne.

Mayonnaise Dressing

Take two icecold eggs and separate the yolks from the whites. Into the yolks stir a third of a teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper, and, drop by drop, olive oil, stirring continuously. You have now a thick mass; add a few drops of lemonjuice or vinegar, and stir; then oil again and stir, then lemonjuice or vinegar, till you have the quantity and consistency you wish. If it is to your taste, add onionjuice or half a teaspoon of made mustard, or a drop or two of mint.

The lemonjuice or vinegar is the thinning ingredient, and constant stirring is essential to successful making of the dressing. Set on the ice, and just before serving add a tablespoon of whipped or plain thick cream. The yolk of a hardboiled egg may also be beaten in with the cream. To make the yolk smooth rub it first through a sieve, and then stir into the dressing. This dressing is dropped with a small spoon on peeled tomatoes, lettuce, asparagus, chicken, and is a heartier salad dressing than French dressing.