Scald the tomatoes and take off the skin, and put them into cold water or on to the ice until quite cold. Cut them up the same as an orange; peel and cut up the cucumber into very thin slices and mince up the onion. Sprinkle these with pepper and salt, pour over the oil and vinegar. Shred up the lettuce and lay on the top, it is then ready to serve.
Cut up and season the lobster the same as chicken. Break the leaves from a head of lettuce, one by one, and wash them singly in a large pan of cold water. Put them in a pan of ice water for about ten minutes, and then shake in a wire basket, to free them of water. Place in the ice chest until serving time. When ready to serve, put two or three leaves together in the form of a shell, and arrange these shells on a flat dish. Mix one-half of the mayonnaise dressing with the lobster. Put a table-spoonful of this in each cluster of leaves. Finish with a teaspoonful of the dressing on each spoonful of lobster. This is an exceedingly inviting dish. Another method is to cut or tear the leaves rather coarse, and mix with the lobster. Garnish the border of the dish with whole leaves. There should be two-thirds lobster to one-third lettuce.
Peel and pit some peaches, cut in slices and add as much sliced pineapple, some apricots, strawberries and raspberries, put these in a dish. Prepare a syrup of juice of two lemons, two oranges, one cup of water and one pound sugar, a half teaspoon of powdered cinnamon, grated rind of lemon, add one cup red wine and a half glass of Madeira, arrak or rum. Boil this syrup for five minutes, then pour over the fruit, tossing the fruit from time to time until cool. Place on ice and serve cold.
The dishes on which meats, fish, jellies and creams are placed should be large enough to leave a margin of an inch or so between the food and the lower edge of the border of the dish. It is well to pour the sauce for cold puddings around the pudding, especially if there will be a contrast in color. It is a great improvement to have the sauce poured around the article instead of over it, and to have the border of the dish garnished with bits of parsley, celery tops or carrot leaves. When sauce is poured around meat or fish the dish must be quite hot, or the sauce will cool quickly. Small rolls or sticks of bread are served with soup. Potatoes and bread are usually served with fish, but many people prefer to serve only bread. Butter is not served at the more elegant dinners. Two vegetables will be sufficient in any course. Cold dishes should be very cold, and hot dishes hot. It is a good idea to have a dish of sliced lemons for any kind of fish, and especially for those broiled or fried. Melons, cantelopes, cucumbers and radishes, and tomatoes, when served in slices, should all be chilled in the ice chest. Be particular not to overdo the work of decorating. Even a simple garnish adds much to the appearance of a dish, but too much decoration only injures it. Garnishes should be so arranged as not to interfere with serving. Potato-balls and thin fried potatoes make a nice garnish for all kinds of fried and broiled meats and fish. Cold boiled beets, carrots and turnips, and the whites of hard-boiled eggs, stamped out with a fancy vegetable cutter, make a pretty garnish for cold or hot meats. Thin slices of toast, cut into triangles, make a good garnish for many dishes. Whipped cream is a delicate garnish for all Bavarian dreams, blanc- manges, frozen puddings and ice creams. Arrange around jellies or creams a border of any kind of delicate green, like smilax or parsley, or of rose leaves, and dot it with bright colors--pinks, geraniums, verbenas or roses. Remember that the green should be dark and the flowers small and bright. A bunch of artificial rose leaves, for decorating dishes of fruit at evening parties, lasts for years. Natural leaves are preferable when they can be obtained. Wild roses, buttercups and nasturtiums, if not used too freely, we suitable for garnishing a salad.
Put the yolks of the eggs into a basin, sprinkle over the salt, begin to stir them with a wooden spoon, dropping in the oil very slowly. The sauce must be kept thick, and the oil added very slowly. When it is quite thick and smooth, pour in the vinegar slowly, and it is ready for use. This is considered the finest of all salad dressings. If made some time before it is required for table, it must be kept cool. It ought to stand in ice, and the vinegar should be added just before serving. It may be used for any kind of salad instead of the ordinary dressing.
3 firm tomatoes 1/2 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped parsley 2 tablespoons salad oil
Peel tomatoes and cut in half. Mix onion and parsley, add oil; let stand two hours before using. When ready to serve line salad bowl with lettuce, place tomatoes in it and on each half put 1 tablespoon onion and parsley mixture. Pour on French dressing. Everything should be ice cold.
Boil one quart of small potatoes, Bermuda potatoes are best. Do not peel them, just wash and scrub the potatoes thoroughly in cold water. Put them in a kettle with enough cold water, slightly salted, just to cover them; stand them over a brisk fire with the kettle covered until the water begins to boil; then turn down the heat, lift the cover of the kettle slightly and let the potatoes cook slowly till done. Drain off the water and stand the potatoes where they will get cold. But do not put them in a refrigerator. When quite cold, peel the potatoes and slice them very thin in a salad bowl. To every two layers of potato slices sprinkle over a very light layer of white onions sliced very thin. Texas onions are particularly fine for this purpose. When the salad bowl is well filled pour over the salad a French dressing made of equal parts of oil and vinegar; let the vinegar be part tarragon; use a palatable amount of salt and pepper. When ready to serve, cover the surface of the salad with a stiff mayonnaise in which a suggestion of cream has been mixed. Ornament with quarters of hard-boiled eggs, boiled beets cut in fancy slices and a fringe of parsley around the edge of the bowl.
This is the most delicious of all cold sauces. It is composed entirely of raw yolk of egg and oil, flavoured with a dash of vinegar. When made properly it should be of the consistency of butter in summer time. Many women cooks labour under the delusion that it requires the addition of cream. Mayonnaise sauce is made as follows:--Break an egg and separate the yolk from the white, and place the yolk at the bottom of a large basin. Next take a bottle of oil, which must be cool but bright; if the oil is cloudy, as it often is in cold weather, you cannot make the sauce. Nor can you if the oil has been kept in a warm place. Now proceed to let the oil drop, drop by drop, on the yolk of egg, and with a silver fork, or still better, a wooden one, beat the yolk of egg and oil quickly together. Continue to drop the oil, taking care that only a few drops drop at a time, especially at starting, and continue to beat the mixture lightly and quickly. Gradually the yolk of egg and oil will begin to get thick, first of all like custard. When this is the case a little more oil may be added at a time, but never more than a teaspoonful. As more oil is added, and the beating continues, the sauce gets thicker and thicker, till it is nearly as thick as butter in summer time. When it arrives at this stage no more oil should be added. A little tarragon vinegar may be added at the finish, or a little lemon juice. This makes the sauce whiter in colour. One yolk of egg will take a teacupful of oil. It is best to add pepper and salt when the salad is mixed. Mayonnaise sauce is by far the best sauce for lettuce salad. It will keep a day, but should be kept in a cool place, and the basin should be covered over with a moist cloth.
Peel and cut into slices (lengthwise) some fine cucumbers. Boil them until soft; salt to taste, and serve with delicate cream sauce. For Tomato Salad, see SALADS, also for Raw Cucumbers.
but if wanted to be made at home, take equal quantities of finest salad oil and either lemon juice or vinegar and mix together gradually by a few drops at a time. A little cream or yolk of egg beat up is an improvement, and ketchup, made mustard, &c., may be added to taste. The dressing may be prepared beforehand, but should be put on just before sending to table.
