Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Tomato Salad. — Like most other kinds, it should be dressed only just before serving ; and for variety, cucumbers, Spanish onions, or both, may be mixed with the tomatoes. For the dressing, use either the French dressing or mayonnaise. Turkey Salad. — Turkey is more economical and better for salad than chicken. To a turkey weighing about 9 lbs. allow nine eggs — seven hardboiled, and two of them raw, yolks and whites beaten separately. To each egg allow two table-spoonfuls of salad oil, perfectly pure and sweet, one saltspoonful of salt, the same of mustard, and two of cayenne pepper to the whole ; celery to taste, lettuce leaves, if in season, using only the heart, and the juice of two large lemons or three smaller ones. Turnip-top Salad. — All through the South there is no salad more prized than turnip-tops. The tender young leaves are freshly gathered and thrown into cold water. The pot is put over a brisk fire, and in twenty minutes the greens will be boiled. Take them up in a vegetablestrainer, place them in a vegetabledish, add a small lump of butter, and cover the turnip - tops with poached eggs. Sprinkle these last with pepper. Vegetable Salad Salamander and the dish has a very appetizing look and is extremely wholesome. Vegetable Salad. — Into two quarts of boiling water, salted with one teaspoonful of salt, put two carrots, two white turnips, two celery- roots, two beets, one pint of string-beans, one pint of pease, and one small cauliflower. The vegetables should be cooked separately, and tender, but not too soft. When cooked put them in cold water for five minutes, peeling the celery -roots and beets. When perfectly cold slice the carrots, turnips, celery, and beets in pieces three inches long, and, in the case of the string-beans, lengthwise. Make a seasoning from a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt, half a pinch of pepper, one table - spoonful of olive oil, and half a table-spoonful of wine vinegar. Mix well with a spoon. This quantity must be repeated for each vegetable — the sauce, when finished, poured over its vegetable, and gently tossed in order not to break the pieces. Arrange the vegetables in a salad-bowl, the cauliflower in the centre, hearts of lettuce marking the four corners. One hardboiled egg, cut in quarters, lengthwise, on top of carrots, beans, pease, and beets. This arrangement of the salad affords the opportunity to each guest to choose vegetables to taste. Another way : — The simplest thing in a vegetable salad is, of course, lettuce with French dressing, and there is nothing better ; yet one wishes a change. Put asparagus on the lettuce and pour the dressing over both, and serve very cold. Or, put cold boiled cauliflower on the lettuce, either in one handsome head or broken in bits, and cover with French dressing as before. Stringbeans may also be served in the same way, or tomatoes. Or, dress any one of these and pass mayonnaise with it in addition. If one wishes something more elaborate, there are combinations of vegetables which are good, especially in the shape of tomatoes and cucumbers, which seem made to be used together. They may, of course, be sliced and laid in a bowl, either with or without ice underneath.