This section is from the book "Facts Worth Knowing", by Robert Kemp Philip. Also available from Amazon: Inquire Within for Anything You Want to Know.
This is a point of proficiency which it is easy to attain with care. The main point is, to incorporate the several articles required for the sauce, and to serve up at table as fresh as possible. The herbs should be "morning gathered," and they will be much refreshed by laying an hour or two in spring water. Careful picking, and washing, and drying in a cloth, in the kitchen, are also very important, and the due proportion of each herb requires attention. The sauce may be thus prepared: - Boil two eggs for ten or twelve minutes, and then put them in cold water for a few minutes, so that the yolks may become quite cold and hard. Rub them through a coarse sieve with a wooden spoon, and mix them with a tablespoonful of water or cream and then add two tablespoonfuls of fine flask oil or melted butter; mix, and add by degrees a teaspoonful of salt, and the same quantity of mustard; mix till smooth, when incorporate with the other ingredients about three table-spoonfuls of vinegar; then pour this sauce down the side of the salad-bowl, but do not stir up the salad till wanted to be eaten. Garnish the top of the salad with the white of the eggs, cut in slices; or these may be arranged in such manner as to be ornamental on the table. Some persons may fancy they are able to prepare a salad with-out previous instruction; but like everything else, a little knowledge in this case may not be thrown away.
 
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