Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Ham Salad. — Take i lb. of lean, cold boiled ham, and cut fine. Chop half as much celery and mix with the ham ; put in a salad-bowl, pour over half a pint of mayonnaise and garnish with rings of hard-boiled eggs. Italian Salad. — Italian salads comprise every variety of vegetables, cooked or raw, and meat or fish, though it must not be supposed that the different ingredients are heaped together without due regard to harmony. We give here one of the best salads : Slice a couple of cold potatoes and the half of a beet-root, and mix them with some boiled celery and Brussels sprouts. Season with vinegar or tartar sauce. Add any cold meat in small pieces, and serve as soon as mixed. Place the meat lightly in the bowl, and throw the salad mixture over. Crown the whole with stoned olives. Lent Salad. — Fill the bottom of a salad-dish with crisp lettuce leaves. Cut cold boiled or baked fish into pieces, and fill the dish with it; pour over a pint of mayonnaise dressing. Chop the coral of a lobster very fine ; sprinkle it over the salad. Garnish with rings of hard-boiled eggs, and serve very cold. Lettuce is undoubtedly the queen of salads. Use the tender leaves only, and put them in cold water twenty minutes to make them crisp. Drain in a colander, and toss in a napkin until thoroughly dry. The plain F rench dressing is best, but some prefer to add chopped herbs when mixing the salad with the dressing. All varieties of lettuce are prepared in the same way. Lobster Salad. See Fish. Mixed Salad. — Boil eggs hard ; chop up separately the yolks and the whites into a coarse powder. Grate a quantity of hung beef ; cut filleted anchovies or Dutch herrings into strips. In the middle of the dish make a compact heap of blanched lettuce hearts. Surround this with a circle of water-cress or other dark or brightgreen salad. Next to this strew a circle of powdered egg-yolk, then of the whites, then of the beef. Make an outer circle of whatever salad you have that is freshest and most convenient ; cut up small. Decorate the central heap with the strips of herring or anchovy, and garnish the outer rim of the dish with a few patches of pickled red cabbage and chopped parsley or chives, placed alternately round its circumference. Serve mayonnaise sauce or salad mixture in a separate boat. This medley salad may be greatly varied as season and circumstances render convenient. Merveille Salad. — Divide one nice head of white lettuce into four parts. Cut from each part a small heart, to be placed on top of each corner of the prepared salad. Shred all the remaining white leaves. Remove the stems of a white chicory, using only the tender part. Divide one romaine salad into four parts. Chop finely one large cooked and cold beet, and pour over it one table-spoonful of wine vinegar. Add three table - spoonfuls of finely chopped white celery. Place all the leaves for the salad in a bowl of icewater for half an hour before using it. While these are cooling, chop finely one hard-boiled egg. Cut four anchovies into very small pieces. Drain the salad in a salad-basket or dry between the folds of a clean towel. Arrange them artistically in a salad-bowl, and over the leaves spread first the Orange Salad Ravigote Salad