Sunday, September 16, 2012

Salad Days


From the Woman's World Cook Book, copyright 1956, from the Culinary Arts Institute of Chicago (does it still exist, I wonder?).

"SALADS.  Fruits, nuts, uncooked and cooked vegetables and some cooked meats, fish and fowl, served cold and dressed with condiments, oils and acids, are known as salads.

UTENSILS NEEDED FOR SALAD MAKING.  A chilled earthenware bowl is excellent for mixing salad ingredients.  Two forks or a fork and a spoon are better to use in folding together the ingredients than a spoon alone, because they do not crush the materials so much as a single utensil.

A sharp-edged knif or vegetable cutter is necessary for slicing vegetables or fruits.  Where fruit pulp is to be removed from the thin white membrane enclosing it, a thin narrow knife slightly curved at the tip is useful.  A pair of shears can be used for many of the processes of salad making, such as shredding lettuce, clipping off wilted or discolored edges, etc.

Various fancy shapes for molding individual salads may be bought, or tea-cups or small bowls may be used as molds.  Gelatin salads may be put into pans and cut in square or fancy shapes after they have hardened.  The cube trays of mechanical refrigerators are excellent for molding gelatin.

MISCELLANEOUS COMBINATIONS FOR FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SALADS.

1) Avocado, grapefruit, romaine.
2) Avocado, orange, and cress
3) Avocado, peeled white grapes, and chicory
4) Avocado, tangerine, pecans, and lettuce
5) Avocado, tart apple, and romaine
6) Chicory, escarole, and grapefruit
7) Chicory, shredded cabbage, and lettuce
8) Escarole, Chinese cabbage, and cress
9) Chinese cabbage, tomato slice, radish, olive, in a pagoda*
10) Endive, carrot sticks, and grapefruit
11) Shredded carrot, Chinese cabbage, and romaine
12) Orange, Bermuda onion, and romaine
13) Tomato, cucumber, celery and onion
14) Potato diced, celery, cucumber, green pepper, and pimiento
15) Green peas, peanuts, mint leaves, and lettuce
16) Dandelion, escarole, pimiento, and onion."

*There is no further explanation offered.  Perhaps the cook is supposed to construct a pagoda out of the vegetables.

2 comments:

Ladytats said...

interesting.
very different combinations, I don't know about #12 tho

Shay said...

Some of them seem to be based on what is fashionable (which in the 50's would be avocado, grapefruit and pimiento) rather than what works well together.