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JOUKNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cabbage-lettuce is used. Endive, sometimes, called chicory, salad is 

 made in precisely the same way. 



In the average English household, however, there is still room for 

 enterprise in the matter of salads. Whether or not we intend to 

 remain, as the French cook says, a one-sauce people," we are 

 certainly in great measure a " one-salad people," and even more a 

 " one-salad-dressing people." The most popular salad in this country 

 is, no doubt, the lettuce salad, that is to say, lettuce forms by far the 

 chief ingredient of an English salad. Indeed, a salad in the English 

 style would not be recognized without its proper proportion of lettuce. 

 Yet variety in both salads and dressings can be obtained with but little 

 greater expenditure of time or money. 



There are certain directions in the preparation of salads which 

 nobody can afford to despise who would rise high in the art of salad- 

 making. First and foremost it is absolutely essential that in preparing 

 green salad every leaf should be most carefully washed and thoroughly 

 drained. This is best effected by placing the leaves, after they have 

 been picked and washed and divided into convenient pieces, into a wire 

 salad basket, or by folding them in a clean cloth and shaking well 

 without crushing or bruising them. Where moisture remains on the 

 leaf the oil dressing will not stay, the mixture is ineffective, and the 

 salad is spoiled. Long soaking in water should be avoided. 



Next in importance to the dryness of the salad is the injunction 

 never to let the leaves be touched by a steel knife. They must be torn 

 or broken by the, fingers, or cut with a bone, ivory, or silver knife, 

 and then tossed into the bowl in which the dressing has already been 

 mixed. 



The question of the salad-dressing is of equal importance to that 

 of the salad. Oil and vinegar supply all that is really necessary as a 

 salad-dressing. The more elaborate mixtures sometimes substituted 

 often detract from, rather than add to, the excellence of a salad. Many 

 English people are prejudiced against the use of oil, but that is because 

 of the poor qualities upon the market and the high price of good oil 

 as compared with the Continent. Only the purest olive oil should be 

 used, or, failing this, good nut oil, for the salad itself is cheap enough, 

 and so deserves a careful selection of the adjuncts. The same with the 

 vinegar. Avoid cheap vinegars, which are in reality nothing but 

 pyroligneous acid, and get pure wine vinegar, as this proves the best , 

 for salads. Vinegar ought literally to be vin-aigre. Malt vinegar does 

 not usually make good salads. Lemon juice is frequently used by 

 those who object to vinegar. A little cider added with the vinegar is*' 

 considered an improvement by many. 



Sydney Smith, who is often quoted in connexion with salad-making, ; 

 settled the proportions of salad-dressing years ago as three tablespoon- ; 

 f uls of oil to one of vinegar ; and, as for the mixing, one is reminded < 

 of the old Spanish saying which advises salad-makers to be a spend- 

 thrift with the oil, a miser with the vinegar, a wise man with the salt 

 and pepper, and a madman with the mixing. The necessary salt andi 



