little salt, and then pour over it, 3 table-spoonsful of oil to 1½ of vinegar, add a little pepper, and stir it up well with a spoon and fork. There ought not to be a drop of liquid at the bottom of the bowl. To this may be added hard-boiled yolk of egg, also beet root well boiled and sliced. Any kind of salad may be dressed in this way. Good oil is not dear, but exceedingly wholesome. The least degree of the flavour of garlic is liked by some in salad, and may be obtained by cutting open a clove and rubbing it a few times round the salad bowl. Some persons like a very little grated parmesan, in their salad.
Where oil is not liked, use oiled butter, or cream. Rub very smooth on a soup plate the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, with thick cream; when this is done, add more cream, or oiled butter, vinegar, pepper, and salt to your taste, and mix the salad in it: or pour the mixture into the bowl, the salad on the top, and do not stir it up at all, but leave this to be done at table.
The top of a dressed salad should be garnished with slices of beet root, contrasted with rings of the white of hard-boiled eggs; or a few young radishes and green onions, or cresses, tastefully arranged on the top. Plovers and sea birds' eggs may be laid on the top, arranging some herb to form each one's nest; or all in one nest, in the centre. A pretty salad is a great ornament to a table, and not an expensive one.
The following list may be imperfect, but though there may be other herbs which would be useful in salads, all these are good.
- Lettuce.
- Radishes.
- Water Cresses.
- Young Onions.
- Corn Salad.
- Endive.
- Celery.
- Mustard and Cress.
- Chervil.
- Coriander.
- Tarragon.
- Nasturtiums.
- Sorrel.
- Young Spinach.
- French Fennel.
- Burnet.
- Basil.
- Chicory.
The French make salads of cold boiled cauliflower, celery, French beans, and haricots. A mixture of either with
