Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Part 41

Dressing for salad was composed of the following: Three well-beaten yolks of eggs. Pour over these 1 pint of boiling hot cider vinegar, stand on back of range to thicken. Place in a bowl 3 freshly boiled and finely mashed white potatoes, add 1 tablespoonful of dry mustard, 6 teaspoonfuls of olive oil, 1 tablespoonful of salt, 1 tablespoonful of pepper. Mix all well together, then add the thickened vinegar. Beat together until creamy and stand aside until chilled.

Drop the three whites of eggs in hot water, remove when cooked, chop fine and when cold add to the chicken meat and celery.

Pour the dressing over all the ingredients, stir lightly with a fork and stand in a cold place until chilled before serving.

GERMAN POTATO SALAD

Boil one dozen small potatoes without paring. Remove the skin and cut potatoes size of dice, also a small onion, finely minced. Put small pieces of bacon in a pan and fry brown and crisp. Add a large tablespoonful of vinegar and a pinch of salt. Pour the hot bacon fat and vinegar over the diced potatoes, toss them up lightly with a fork and serve hot.

GERMAN TURNIP SALAD

This is the manner in which Aunt Sarah made turnip salad: She pared and sliced thin on a slaw cutter 5 large, solid turnips, put them in a stew-pan which she placed on the range, adding about 1/4 cup hot water, 1 teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter and 1/4 teaspoonful of sugar (no more).

She covered the stew-pan closely and steamed about half an hour until the turnips were tender. Then mixed together 1 teaspoonful of flour with 1 tablespoonful of vinegar and yolk of one egg. This was poured over the stewed turnips, just allowed to come to a boil, then removed from the fire. Add a little salt and serve hot.

GERMAN SALAD DRESSING

For dandelion, watercress, endive or lettuce, a dressing was made thus: The leaves of vegetables used for salad, after being carefully rinsed and looked over, were cut fine, and the following dressing poured over hot and served at once.

A small quant.i.ty of bacon was finely minced and fried crisp. To about 2 tablespoonfuls of bacon and fat after being fried, 3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar and 1 of sour cream, were added pepper and salt and a very little flour mixed with cold water, to make it the consistency of cream. The yolk of one raw egg may be added to the dressing if liked.

An easier way for the busy housewife to do is to simply add a couple of tablespoonfuls of Aunt Sarah's Salad Dressing, add also a small quant.i.ty of water, flour and fried, diced bacon; serve hot at once.

MARY'S POTATO SALAD

A bowl of cold, boiled, diced or thinly-sliced potatoes, three hard boiled eggs, also diced, and about half the quant.i.ty of celery chopped in half-inch pieces, and a little minced onion, just enough to give a suspicion of its presence. She mixed all together lightly with a silver fork and mixed through some of the following salad dressing, which is fine for anything requiring a cold salad dressing.

MARY'S SALAD DRESSING

One tablespoonful of flour, 1 tablespoonful of mustard, 2 cups of sweet or sour cream, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, 1/2 cup of good sharp vinegar, yolks of four eggs, small teaspoonful of salt. Omit sugar when using the dressing for potato or chicken salad. This salad dressing may also be used for lettuce.

"FRUIT" SALAD DRESSING

Three tablespoonfuls of olive oil to 1-1/2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar.

Season with salt and pepper. Use this quant.i.ty for 1 pint of salad.

GRAPE FRUIT SALAD

Cut the pulp from one grape fruit into small pieces, add an equal amount of chopped apples, a few English walnuts chopped coa.r.s.ely.

Serve on lettuce leaves with fruit salad dressing. This recipe was given Mary by a friend who knew her liking for olive oil.

Grape fruit is delicious, served cut in halves with the addition to each half; of a couple tablespoonfuls of pineapple juice, a tablespoonful of orange juice or tiny pieces of orange pulp, topped with a marachino cherry. A small quant.i.ty of sugar should have been added. The sections of grape fruit should each have been cut loose from the white skin inclosing pulp with a small knife or scissors.

A GOOD, INEXPENSIVE SALAD DRESSING

1 tablespoonful flour.

1 tablespoonful b.u.t.ter.

1 tablespoonful mustard.

1/2 tablespoonful sugar.

1 teaspoonful salt.

1 egg.

3/4 cup milk.

3/4 cup vinegar.

Use a double boiler, put in it the first five articles, stir together until smooth; add the well-beaten egg and the milk. Let cook, stirring hard. Then add vinegar, and beat all with an egg-beater until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Let cool before using.

Aunt Sarah frequently used this salad dressing over sliced, cold, hard boiled eggs when other salad materials were not plentiful. Serve on lettuce leaves.

IMITATION LOBSTER SALAD

A bowl was lined with crisp lettuce leaves, over this was spread a layer of cold boiled potatoes, cut in dice, a little finely minced onion, a layer of chopped celery, another layer of diced potatoes, then a layer of sliced tomatoes and one hard boiled egg, thinly sliced. Pour a good salad dressing over and serve ice cold.

"GERMAN" HORSERADISH SAUCE

A sauce to serve with boiled meat was prepared by Aunt Sarah in the following manner: She put half a cup of milk in a stew-pan, let come to a boil, added one large tablespoonful of cracker crumbs, 1 large teaspoonful of b.u.t.ter, 2 large tablespoonfuls of freshly grated horseradish, seasoned with pepper and salt. Also a pinch of salt, sugar and pepper added to grated horseradish, then thinned with vinegar, is an excellent accompaniment to cold meat.

MAYONNAISE DRESSING IN WHICH OLIVE OIL IS USED

Before making this dressing for salads, Mary placed a large soup plate or a shallow bowl in the refrigerator, also a bottle of olive oil and two egg yolks. All should be quite cold. Put the yolks on the cold plate, add 1/4 teaspoonful of salt, the same of mustard. Mix well and then, with a fork, stir or blend the olive oil into it drop by drop.

After about 1/2 cup of oil has been blended in, add lemon juice, a drop or two at a time. Then more oil, and when it becomes very thick add more lemon juice. A pint or even more oil may, with care, be blended into two yolks. Care must be taken not to mix oil in too fast, or the egg and oil will separate, making a mixture resembling curdled custard. If this should happen, take another plate, another egg yolk, and begin over again, blending a drop or two at a time in the curdled mixture. Then add more oil and lemon juice as before.

MUSTARD DRESSING TO SERVE WITH SLICED TOMATOES

Two tablespoonfuls mustard, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, 1/2 cup cream, 1 tablespoon salt, yolks of two eggs and 1/2 cup of vinegar. Beat all well together, first mixing the mustard until smooth with a small quant.i.ty of cream, then add the other ingredients. (Mary used only 1 tablespoonful of mustard, and subst.i.tuted 1 tablespoonful of flour instead of the second tablespoonful of mustard and thought it improved the dressing.) This mustard dressing may also be served at table, to be eaten with lettuce.

CHICKEN SALAD

The meat of one boiled chicken cut in small pieces, three-fourths as much celery, also cut in small pieces. Three hard boiled eggs cut in dice. Take 2 teaspoonfuls salt, 2 teaspoonfuls pepper, 4 teaspoonfuls mustard, 1 cup of sweet cream and 1 raw egg. Use vinegar to thin the mustard. Beat the raw egg, add to cream, egg and b.u.t.ter (mash yolks of hard boiled eggs and b.u.t.ter together). Mix all the ingredients together and cook until it thickens (all except chicken meat, celery and hard boiled whites of eggs, which should be placed in a large bowl after cutting in small pieces). The salad dressing should he put in another bowl and stood on ice until cold, then mix the salad dressing carefully through the chicken meat, celery, etc., one hour before using. Cover with a plate until ready to serve. Or "Aunt Sarah's Salad Dressing" could be used over the chicken, celery, etc. This is a very old but an excellent recipe used by Aunt Sarah's mother for many years.

PEPPER HASH

Chop fine with a knife, but do not shred with a slaw cutter, 1 pint of finely chopped cabbage, adding 1 teaspoonful of salt, 2 teaspoonfuls of sugar, 1 teaspoonful of whole mustard seed, 1/2 a chopped red, sweet pepper, a pinch of red cayenne pepper and 1/2 pint of vinegar.

Mix all well together and serve with fried oysters, oyster stew and deviled oysters.

This "pepper hash" is delicious if a couple tablespoonfuls of thick cream be added just before serving.