Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Ravigote Salad. — Clean two large heads of white lettuce, remove the stems of the large leaves, cut the leaves in four pieces. Keep the heart large enough to be cut in four pieces. Wash in ice-water, and drain in the salad - basket or shake gently in a clean towel, taking care not to bruise the leaves. Peel and slice thin two cucumbers of medium size, and put in a bowl with one teaspoonful of salt and a few lumps of ice for two hours before using. When ready, drain in colander and wipe lightly with a towel. Prepared in this way, cucumbers are easy to digest. Peel and slice the largest radishes of a bunch. Keep the smaller ones whole and trim them prettily to decorate the salad. Leave in ice-water until ready to use. Cut in thin slices one-half pint of cold, boiled potatoes ; cut in thin strips two inches long *4 lb. of cold, lean, cooked Russian Salad Turnip-top Salad ham, and % lb. of cold smoked tongue. Arrange all in a salad-bowl, putting the nicest pieces on top. Set in ice-box until time to serve. Make and keep cold the following dressing : Crush in a bowl the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs, and also the yolk of a raw one. Add slowly four tablespoonfuls of olive oil, stirring to a smooth paste. Add one teaspoonful of dry mustard. Mix well with this one small green onion, one tablespoonful of gherkins, one table-spoonful of parsley, all chopped fine, one clove of garlic, one teaspoonful of salt, one salt-spoonful of white pepper. At the last stir in two table-spoonfuls of tarragon vinegar. Pour the dressing over the salad. When ready to serve, remove the garlic clove. The salad must only be stirred at the table. Any cold roast meat may be used instead of the ham and tongue, making the salad a very palatable one, and also quite inexpensive. Russian Salad. — Cut some carrots, turnips, parsnips, and beet-root into .strips with a scoop. Add, if liked, other vegetables, such as asparagus, pease, French beans, gherkins, capers, scraped horseradish, etc. Put the vegetables in a salad-dish in layers, season each layer with mayonnaise or tartar sauce, and gradually diminish the size of the layers till the salad comes to a point. Ornament with a border of aspic jelly, picked prawns, olives, or gherkins, and garnish the surface with small balls of caviare. Spanish Salad. — Peel and slice four medium-sized tomatoes and seed and shred fine one small green pepper. Arrange these on lettuce leaves in a salad-bowl ; stone and slice a dozen olives and mix them through the salad. Have all ice-cold. Make a French dressing, adding to it a teaspoonful of minced chives, or a dozen drops of onion-juice, and pour this over the salad about five minutes before it is to be eaten. Mix it well with the salad before serving. Spinach Salad. — Take a quart of young, tender spinach leaves, put in a salad-bowl with spring onions cut up fine and a sprig of mint. Pour over half a pint of plain salad dressing, and garnish with hard-boiled eggs. Summer Salad. — Take cold boiled string -beans, pease, beets, potatoes, and asparagus - tips. Slice the beets and potatoes. If you have a spare tomato or two, and a small cucumber, peel and slice these and add them to the cooked vegetables. Mix them carefully, that you may not break the vegetables. Arrange them on lettuce leaves, and serve with a French dressing.