Cassell's dictionary of cookery

early spring salad. The seeds are sown with those of mustard (Sinapis nigra and Sinapis alba), and the young plants are both eaten together under the name of 'mustard and cress.' Ked beet, the Beta vulgaris of botanists. There are two varieties of this plant used as salad. FLrst, a variety called la Garde, which has a small root and large leaves ; the latter are eaten in the same way as lettuce. The other variety is called Bettcrare, in which the roots are largely developed. The roots are boiled and sliced and eaten with vinegar, oil, pepper, and salt. The radish is the Raphanus Raphanistrum. The roots of this pliant are eaten uncooked, and, like the family to which they belong, contain a subacrid oil, which gives them an agreeable flavour. They are less digestible than many other plants eaten as salad. Lamb's lettuce, or corn-salad, is the Valerianella alitor ia. This plant is a native of Great Britain, and is often cultivated for use as a salad. The leaves for this purpose should be cut young or they will have a disagreeable bitter taste. The common sorrel is the Rumex acetosa. The acid taste of this plant depends on the presence of oxalic acid. It is much iised as a salad in Franco. The common dandelion is the Leontodon Taraxacum. This i)lant, though very common in England, is not much used as a salad. It has, however, when young, the flavour and properties of lettuce, and is extensively employed as a salad on the Continent.'' Salad Herbs, Small. — There are certain plants which are employed, chiefly in the seed leaf, or when very young, for the purpose of procuring salads throughout the year, or at times and in situations when no others can be had. Some of these are also mixed with the larger salad plants to improve their flavour or wholesome qualities. The sort most in use in this country are mustard, cresses, rape, turnip, radish, white cabbage, cabbage-lettuce, &c. Some of these may be procured at all seasons of the year, and are cut when not over a week or ten days old. Being of a warm relish, if allowed to grow too large, so as to run into the rough leaf, they become of a disagreeably strong hot taste. Mustard is remarkable for the rapidity of its growth, and on this account is frequently sowm in the ground, as a small salad, together with cress. The seeds strewed on wet flannel, and placed in a warm situation, even by the fireside, frequently shoot out their seed-leaves in a day or two — sometimes even in a few hours — a circumstance which is frequently taken advantage of in long voyages. Ships going to the East Indies used to have boxes placed on the deck wherein mustard and cress were sowed for the purpose of getting salad on the voyage; and the number of crops thus raised was surprising. The garden-cress stands at the head of the small-salad plants, and is much cultivated for this purpose. It has a very warm but pleasant flavour. By the aid of a little artificial heat, it may be had fresh all through the winter. The variety known as jVmerican cress grows ■wild in Great Britain on moist or watery ground. It is aromatic and pungent, but rather bitter. It is sometimes cultivated for winter and early spring salad. It occasionally goes under the name of French cress. The winter cress is also found wild in this country in watery spots and slow-running streams. In flavour and use it much resembles the last.