This subject has been treated of so fully—so exhaustively, I thought, then,—in No. 1 of the “Common Sense Series,”[A] that I have comparatively few receipts to set down here. I can, however, heartily endorse these as especially good of their kind. Indeed, the neatest compliment ever paid any receipt in my rÉpertoire was when an epicure—not a gourmande—styled the oyster salad made in obedience to it, an “inspiration.”

Oyster Salad. Maltese cross

1 quart oysters, cut—not chopped—into small pieces.

1 bunch celery, cut—not chopped—into small pieces.

2 hard-boiled eggs.

2 raw eggs, well whipped.

1 great spoonful salad oil.

1 teaspoonful powdered sugar.

1 small spoonful salt.

1 small spoonful pepper.

1 small spoonful made mustard.

Half cup best cider vinegar.

Drain the liquor well from the oysters and cut them with a sharp knife into dice. Cut the celery, which should be white and crisp, into pieces of corresponding size. Set them aside in separate vessels, in a cold place while you prepare the dressing. Beat the eggs light (with a “Dover” egg-beater, if you have one), mix in the sugar; then whip in gradually the oil until it is a light cream. Have ready, rubbed to a powder, the boiled yolks; add to them the salt, pepper, and lastly the mustard. Beat these into the oil and yolk, and then, two or three drops at a time, the vinegar, whipping the dressing briskly, but lightly for two or three minutes. It should, if properly managed, be like rich yellow cream—or custard.

With a silver fork toss up the oysters and celery together in a glass dish; pour half of the dressing over them; toss up—not stir it down—for a minute, and pour the rest on the top.

Lay a border of light-green celery tufts close within the edge of the bowl, with a cluster in the middle of the salad. Serve as soon as may be, after it is mixed. Meanwhile, keep on the ice.

Cabbage Salad. (Very good.) Maltese cross

1 small firm head of cabbage—chopped or sliced fine.

1 cup of sweet milk, boiling hot.

A little less than a cup of vinegar.

1 table-spoonful butter.

2 eggs, well beaten.

1 table-spoonful white sugar.

1 teaspoonful essence of celery.

Pepper and salt to taste.

Heat the milk and vinegar in separate vessels. When the vinegar boils, put in the butter, sugar and seasoning. Boil up once and stir in the chopped cabbage. Heat to scalding, but do not let it actually boil. To the hot milk add the eggs; cook one minute after they begin to thicken. Turn the scalding cabbage into a deep bowl; pour the custard over it, stir in quickly, tossing up the mixture with a silver fork, until the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated; cover to keep in the strength of the vinegar, and set where it will cool suddenly.

Serve perfectly cold, and garnish with some slices of cold boiled eggs and cresses.

This will be found a vast improvement upon the old-fashioned “coldslaw,” however prepared, and is more wholesome.

Lobster Salad—without Oil. Maltese cross

1 fine lobster—boiled thoroughly, and carefully picked out. Cut into small pieces; put in a broad dish, and sprinkle with a teaspoonful of salt and one of pepper. Set aside in a cold place.

2 bunches of white crisp celery, also cut into small pieces. Toss up lightly with the lobster.

Dressing.

2 large table-spoonfuls of butter.

1½ large table-spoonfuls of flour or corn-starch.

1 pint boiling water.

Stir the flour, previously wet, into the boiling water; let it boil two minutes and add the butter. Boil one minute longer and set aside to cool. Meantime, mix well and smoothly.

1 large table-spoonful of mustard.

1 teaspoonful of sugar—(powdered).

½ teaspoonful of salt.

1 table-spoonful boiling water.

1 small cup of vinegar.

Beat this up well, then add to the drawn butter—beat to a cream and pour over the lobster.

Garnish the dish with celery tops and hard-boiled eggs.

It gives me great pleasure to present this receipt to those who, from prejudice or taste, do not like the presence of salad oil in any dish. I have known many who would not knowingly partake of salad, fricassee, or ragoÛt, that had oil, in however small quantity, as one of its ingredients. And, unlike mince-pie, with the brandy left out, or pie-crust, minus shortening, this oil-less salad is really delicious. Especially if a couple of raw eggs, well whipped, be added to the drawn butter, when almost cold.

Chicken Salad. (Excellent.) Maltese cross

2 full-grown chickens, boiled tender, and cold.

3 bunches of celery.

2 cups boiling water.

2 table-spoonfuls corn-starch, wet with cold water.

1 great spoonful fat, skimmed from liquor in which the fowls were boiled.

2 table-spoonfuls oil.

1 cup of vinegar.

2 teaspoonfuls made mustard.

3 raw eggs, whipped light.

3 hard-boiled eggs.

1 table-spoonful powdered sugar.

1 teaspoonful salt, or to taste.

1 teaspoonful pepper.

1 teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce.

Remove from the chicken every bit of fat and skin. Cut the best portions of the meat into dice with a sharp knife. Chopping is apt to make it ragged and uneven in appearance. Cut the celery in like manner, and set both aside in a cool place, when you have strewed a little salt over the chicken. To the boiling water add the corn-starch, and boil fast until it thickens well. Then stir in the chicken-essence, skimmed from the top of the cold liquor in which the fowls were boiled. If the pot is clean, it will be of a fine golden color. Take from the fire, and begin to whip into the sauce the beaten eggs. Continue this until the mixture is nearly cold. Rub the hard-boiled yolks to a fine powder in a Wedgewood mortar or earthenware bowl; add the mustard, sugar, pepper, and salt; the Worcestershire sauce; then, a few drops at a time, the oil, lastly, also gradually, the vinegar. Strain through a wire sieve, or coarse tartelane, rubbing through all that will pass the net. Put the chicken and celery together in a glass salad-dish, and wet up with half of the vinegar mixture. Be careful not to do more than moisten it well, tossing up lightly with a silver fork. Then beat the rest of the vinegar sauce into the thicker mixture, which should by this time be perfectly cold. Pour over the salad; ornament the centre of the dish with flower-cups made of the hollowed halves of the whites of boiled eggs, with celery-tufts for petals. Lay a chain of sliced whites nearer the edge of the bowl, with a tender-celery leaf in each link, and set in a very cold place until wanted.

In obedience to this last injunction, I once left my salad on the shelf of a “very cold” pantry, until it was slightly frozen all through—a misadventure I did not suspect until it came to table. With a desperate attempt at facetiousness, I introduced the compound as a novelty—“a salade glacÉe”—and, to my relief and surprise, found in the accident a parallel to the “Irish blackguard” snuff story. The spoiled dish was pronounced by all far more delightful than the usual form of salad. I do not advise a repetition of the adventure on the part of any of my readers. Perhaps other guests might be less complaisant and flattering. It is hardly worth while to risk a cut glass dish on the chances of success.

Use the liquor in which the chickens were boiled for soup.

Cream Dressing for Salad.

1 cup sweet cream. It must be perfectly fresh.

1 table-spoonful corn-starch, or very fine flour.

Whites of two eggs, beaten stiff.

3 table-spoonfuls vinegar.

2 table-spoonfuls best salad-oil.

2 tea-spoonfuls powdered sugar.

1 teaspoonful (scant) of salt.

½ teaspoonful pepper.

1 teaspoonful made mustard.

Heat the cream in a farina-kettle almost to boiling; then stir in the flour, previously wet with cold milk. Boil for two minutes, stirring all the time; add the sugar, and take from the fire. When half cold beat in the whipped whites of egg with swift strokes, but not many. Set aside to cool. When quite cold, whip in the oil, pepper, mustard and salt, and if your salad is ready, add the vinegar, and pour at once over it.

This dressing is especially nice for lettuce salad. If made for chickens, only the white meat should be used.

Golden Salad-dressing. Maltese cross

4 hard-boiled eggs.

3 table-spoonfuls of best salad oil.

4 table-spoonfuls vinegar.

Yolks of 2 eggs, well beaten.

1 teaspoonful powdered sugar.

1 teaspoonful essence of celery.

1 saltspoonful of salt.

1 saltspoonful pepper.

1 teaspoonful made mustard.

Rub the boiled yolks to a powder; add sugar, mustard, salt, pepper. Work up well with the oil; put in gradually. Beat hard; stir in the vinegar, and strain out all lumps, rubbing or squeezing the mixture to get the full strength. Put over the fire and heat almost to boiling. Take a spoonful at a time from the saucepan while still on the fire, and beat into the whipped raw yolks. When all the ingredients are mixed, return to the saucepan; simmer slowly for three minutes, stirring all the time. Do not let it boil, as it will be apt to curdle. Put in the celery-essence after withdrawing it from the range. Let it get perfectly cold; pile up lobster and lettuce—the first cut into dice, the latter pulled lightly apart—in a deep dish, and pour half the dressing over it. Give a few tosses with a silver fork; mound up neatly, and pour the rest of the sauce over all.

This dressing is very fine for a mayonnaise of fish. In this case, add a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce after it comes from the fire.

Potato Salad Dressing. Maltese cross

2 large boiled potatoes.

1 teaspoonful powdered sugar.

1 table-spoonful oil.

1 saltspoonful made mustard.

1 saltspoonful salt, and same of pepper.

1 teaspoonful Harvey’s sauce.

1 egg, beaten light—white and yolk separate.

3 table-spoonfuls vinegar.

Boil the potatoes until mealy, drain every drop of water from them; let them dry on the range for an instant, and beat up (not mash) them with a fork, tossing them into lightness and dryness. When fine and dry, beat in the salt, oil, and egg; the yolk first, then the white, which should be a stiff froth. In another vessel have ready mixed the mustard, sauce, sugar, pepper, and vinegar. Add by degrees to the potato-mixture until it is like thick cream. If not perfectly smooth, rub through a coarse wire sieve or a bit of coarse lace, such as is used for mosquito netting.

This, also, is peculiarly nice with salmon, or halibut mayonnaise, although excellent with chicken or turkey salad.

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