Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties Part 1

Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties.

by Janet McKenzie Hill.

PREFACE

THERE is positive need of more widespread knowledge of the principles of cookery. Few women know how to cook an egg or boil a potato properly, and the making of the perfect loaf of bread has long been a.s.signed a place among the "lost arts."

By many women cooking is considered, at best, a homely art,--a necessary kind of drudgery; and the composition, if not the consumption, of salads and chafing-dish productions has been restricted, hitherto, chiefly to that half of the race "who cook to please themselves." But, since women have become anxious to compete with men in any and every walk of life, they, too, are desirous of becoming adepts in tossing up an appetizing salad or in stirring a creamy rarebit. And yet neither a pleasing salad, especially if it is to be composed of cooked materials, nor a tempting rarebit can be evolved, save by happy accident, without an accurate knowledge of the fundamental principles that underlie all cookery.

In a book of this nature and scope, the philosophy of heat at different temperatures, as it is applied in cooking, and the more scientific aspects of culinary processes, could not be dwelt upon; but, while we have not overlooked the ABC of the art, our special aim has been to present our topics in such a simple and pleasing form that she who attempts the composition of the dishes described herein will not be satisfied until she has gained a deeper insight into the conditions necessary for success in the pursuit of these as well as other fascinating branches of the culinary art.

Care has been exercised to meet the actual needs of those who wish to cultivate a taste for light, wholesome dishes, or to cater to the vagaries of the most capricious appet.i.tes.

There is nothing new under the sun, so no claim is made to absolute originality in contents. In this and all similar works, the matter of necessity must consist, in the main, of old material in a new dress.

Though the introduction to Part III. was originally written for this book, the substance of it was published in the December-January (1898-99) issue of the _Boston Cooking-School Magazine_. From time to time, also, a few of the recipes, with minor changes, have appeared in that journal.

Ill.u.s.trations by means of half-tones produced from photographs of actual dishes were first brought out, we think, by The Century Company; in this line, however, both in the number and in the variety of the dishes prepared, the author may justly claim to have done more than any other has yet essayed. The ill.u.s.trations on these pages were prepared expressly for this work, and the dishes and the photographs of the same were executed under our own hand and eye. That results pleasing to the eye and acceptable to the taste await those who try the confections described in this book is the sincere wish of the author.

JANET M. HILL

PART I.

SALADS.

"_Though my stomach was sharp, I could scarce help regretting To spoil such a delicate picture by eating._"

INTRODUCTION.

At their savory dinner set Herbs and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phyllis dresses.

--_Milton._

Our taste for salads--and in their simplest form who is not fond of salads?--is an inheritance from cla.s.sic times and Eastern lands. In the hot climates of the Orient, cuc.u.mbers and melons were cla.s.sed among earth's choicest productions; and a resort ever grateful in the heat of the day was "a lodge in a garden of cuc.u.mbers."

At the Pa.s.sover the Hebrews ate lettuce, camomile, dandelion and mint,--the "bitter herbs" of the Paschal feast,--combined with oil and vinegar. Of the Greeks, the rich were fond of the lettuces of Smyrna, which appeared on their tables at the close of the repast. In this respect the Romans, at first, imitated the Greeks, but later came to serve lettuce with eggs as a first course and to excite the appet.i.te.

The ancient physicians valued lettuce for its narcotic virtue, and, on account of this property, Galen, the celebrated Greek physician, called it "the philosopher's or wise man's herb."

The older historians make frequent mention of salad plants and salads.

In the biblical narrative Moses wrote: "And the children of Israel wept again and said, We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cuc.u.mbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick."

In his second Eclogue, Virgil represents a rustic maid, Thestylis, preparing for the reapers a salad called _moretum_. He wrote, also, a poem bearing this t.i.tle, in which he describes the composition and preparation of the dish.

A modern authority says, "Salads refresh without exciting and make people younger." Whether this be strictly true or not may be an open question, but certainly in the a.s.sertion a grain of truth is visible; for it is a well-known fact that "salad plants are better tonics and blood purifiers than druggists' compounds." There is, also, an old proverb: "Eat onions in May, and all the year after physicians may play." What is health but youth?

Vegetables, fish and meats, "left over,"--all may be transformed, by artistic treatment, into salads delectable to the eye and taste.

Potatoes are subject to endless combinations. First of all in this connection, before dressing the potatoes allow them to stand in bouillon, meat broth, or even in the liquor in which corned beef has been cooked; then drain carefully before adding the oil and other seasonings.

Of uncooked vegetables, cabbage lettuce--called long ago by the Greek physician, Galen, the philosopher's or wise man's herb--stands at the head of salad plants. Like all uncooked vegetables, lettuce must be served fresh and crisp, and the more quickly it is grown the more tender it will be. When dressed for the table, each leaf should glisten with oil, yet no perceptible quant.i.ty should fall to the salad-bowl.

Watercress, being rich in sulphuretted oil, is often served without oil.

Cheese or eggs combine well with cress; and such a salad, with a sandwich of coa.r.s.e bread and b.u.t.ter, together with a cup of sparkling coffee, forms an ideal luncheon for a picnic or for the home piazza.

Indeed, all the compound salads,--that is, salads of many ingredients,--more particularly if they are served with a cooked or mayonnaise dressing, are substantial enough for the chief dish of a hearty meal. Their digestibility depends, in large measure, on the tenderness of the different ingredients, as well as upon the freshness of the uncooked vegetables that enter into their composition.

A salad has this superiority over every other production of the culinary art: A salad (but not every salad) is suitable to serve upon any occasion, or to any cla.s.s or condition of men. Among _bon vivants_, without a _new_ salad, no matter how _recherche_ the other courses may be, the luncheon, or dinner party, of to-day does not pa.s.s as an unqualified success.

While salads may be compounded of all kinds of delicate meats, fish, sh.e.l.lfish, eggs, nuts, fruit, cheese and vegetables, cooked or uncooked, two things are indispensable to every kind and grade of salad, viz., the foundation of vegetables and the dressing.

=The Dressing.=

Salads are dressed with oil, acid and condiments; and, sometimes, a sweet, as honey or sugar, is used. A perfect salad is not necessarily acetic. The presence of vinegar in a dressing, like that of onions and its relatives, on most occasions should be suspected only. Wyvern and other true epicures consider the advice of Sydney Smith, as expressed in the following couplet, "most pernicious":--

"Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And twice with vinegar procured from town."

Aromatic vinegars, a few drops of which, used occasionally, lend piquancy and variety to an every-day salad, can be purchased at high-cla.s.s provision stores; but the true salad-maker is an artist, and prefers to compound her own colors (_i.e._, vinegars); therefore we have given several recipes for the same, which may be easily modified to suit individual tastes.

Indeed, the dressing of a salad, though in the early days of the century considered a special art,--an art that rendered it possible for at least one noted Royalist refugee to ama.s.s a considerable fortune,--is entirely a matter of individual taste, or, more properly speaking, of cultivation. On this account, particularly for a French dressing, no set rules can be given. By experience and judgment one must decide upon the proportions of the different ingredients, or, more specifically, upon the proportions of the oil and acid to be used. Often four spoonfuls of oil are used to one of vinegar. Four spoonfuls of oil to two, three or four of vinegar may be the proportion preferred by others, and the quant.i.ty may vary for different salads.

Though in many of the recipes explicit quant.i.ties of oil, vinegar and condiments are given, it is with the understanding that these quant.i.ties are indicated simply as an approximate rule; sometimes less and sometimes more will be required, according to the tendency of the article dressed to absorb oil and acid, or the taste of the salad dresser.

=Use of Dressings.=

The dressings in most common use are the French and the mayonnaise. A French dressing is used for green vegetables, for fruit and nuts, and to marinate cooked vegetables, or the meat or fish for a meat or fish salad. Mayonnaise dressing is used for meat, fish, some varieties of fruit, as banana, apple and pineapple, and for some vegetables, as cauliflower, asparagus and tomatoes. Any article to be served with mayonnaise, after standing an hour or more in a marinade,--_i.e._, French dressing,--should be carefully drained, as, by the pickling process, liquid will drain out into the bottom of the vessel and, mixing with the mayonnaise, will liquefy the same.

=Arrangement of Salads.=

In the arrangement of salads there may be great display of taste and individuality. By a judicious selection from materials that may be kept constantly in store, and with one or two window boxes, in which herbs are growing, any one, with a modic.u.m of inventive skill, can so change and modify the appearance and flavor of her salads that she may seem always to present a new one.

=Composition of Mayonnaise.=

Mayonnaise dressing is composed largely of olive oil. A small amount of yolk of egg is used as a foundation. The oil, with the addition of condiments, is slightly acidulated with vinegar and lemon juice, one or both, and the whole is made very light and thick by beating. Mayonnaise forms a very handsome dressing, and it is much enjoyed by those who are fond of oil.

=Value of Oil.=

Pure olive oil is almost entirely without flavor, and a taste for it can be readily acquired; and, when we consider that it contains all the really desirable qualities of the once-famous cod-liver oil, except the phosphates, and that these may be supplied in the other materials of the salad, it would seem wise to cultivate a taste for so wholesome an article. By the addition of cream, in the proportion of a cup of whipped cream to a pint of dressing, those to whom oil has not become agreeable can so modify its "tone" that they too will enjoy the mayonnaise dressing.

=Boiled and Cream Dressings.=

For the French and mayonnaise dressings--particularly for the latter--we sometimes subst.i.tute a _boiled_ and sometimes a _cream_ dressing. In the first, b.u.t.ter, or cream, is subst.i.tuted for oil, and the materials are combined by cooking. In the latter, as the name implies, cream is the basis, and this may be either sweet or sour.