The century cook book

Sour Cream Dressing. Put a cupful of thick, sour cream in a bowl and set on the ice for several hours, or until it is very cold. When ready to serve, beat it with an egg beater for a few minutes; if it is as cold as it should be it will beat up into a stiff white foam. Now add to the cream, one teaspoonful of salt, a little cayenne, the juice of a small lemon, two or three tablespoonsful of vinegar, and beat for Salads 85 two or three minutes longer. This is a nice dressing for vegetables. French Salad Dressing. Put six tablespoonsful of salad oil in a bowl; add to it three tablespoonsful of white wine vinegar, half a teaspoonful of salt, a little cayenne, and a few drops of onion juice; beat all together with a beater and it is ready to serve. This is a nice dressing for lettuce or tomatoes. Tartare Dressing. For tartare sauce take mayonnaise dressing and stir into it half a small bottle of capers, or a few cucumber pickles chopped fine. Summer Salad. Needed: Three lettuces, 2 handfuls of mustard and cress, 10 young radishes, a few slices of cucumber. Let the herbs be as fresh as possible for a salad. Wash and carefully pick them over, and drain them thoroughly by swinging them gently in a clean cloth. Cut the lettuces into small pieces, and the radishes and cucumbers into thin slices; arrange all these ingredients lightly on a dish, with the mustard and cress, and pour under, but not over, the salad, either of the dressings above, and do not stir it up until it is to be eaten. It should be garnished with hard boiled eggs cut in slices, beet root alternately, or sliced cucumbers, nasturtiums, and many other things that taste will always suggest. In making a good salad, care must be taken to have the herbs freshly gathered, and thoroughly drained before the sauce is added to them, or it will be watery and thin. Young spring onions, cut small, are by many persons considered an improvement to salads; but before these are added, the cook should always consult the taste of her employer. Slices of cold meat or poultry added to a salad make a convenient and quickly-made summer luncheon dish; or cold fish, flaked, will also be found exceedingly nice, mixed, with it. EGGS Boiled Eggs. Have a sauce pan of boiling water; drop the eggs in carefully. To have the eggs soft, boil three minutes; medium, five minutes; hard, fifteen or twenty minutes. Hard Boiled Eggs. After boiling fifteen or twenty minutes, take out and put in cold water for a few Boiled Eggs. moments. This will cause the shells to come off readily. They may be sent to the table in the shell, or served with a hot sauce. They are very nice cut in halves and served with a mayonnaise dressing. Fried Eggs. Having enough fat in a frying-pan to nearly cover the eggs when frying, break each egg separately in a saucer, then slip into the hot fat. Do not turn the eggs over, but cook the top by basting the hot fat over the eggs. A good plan is to put muffin rings in the frying-pan and drop the eggs in, for this gives the eggs a nice shape. The rings can be lifted out with a fork as soon as the white is partly cooked. Deviled Eggs. Boil a dozen eggs for twenty minutes; put in cold water and take off the shell. With a sharp knife cut in halves lengthwise, take out the yolks carefully, put in Fried Eggs. Eggs 87