The Myrtle Reed Cook Book

Salads with mayonnaise dressing are too rich to serve at dinner, and hence are relegated to luncheons, Sunday-night suppers, and hot-weather dinners, where no other meat is served.

The variety of salads is inexhaustible, and new combinations are invented every day, many of them elaborate and very difficult to make. The following salads, however, will be found simple, convenient, and in every way satisfactory.

CHICKEN SALAD

Mix cold, cooked, shredded chicken with half the quantity of finely cut celery, mix with mayonnaise dressing, and serve on a bit of lettuce. Garnish with parsley and slices of hard-boiled egg. Canned chicken may be used, but it is not as good.

CHICKEN AND MUSHROOM SALAD

Equal parts of chicken and cooked mushrooms. Mayonnaise.

MOCK CHICKEN SALAD

Cold roast pork, shredded with the fingers and mixed with half as much finely cut celery. Mayonnaise.

CHICKEN AND SWEETBREAD SALAD

Cold, cooked, shredded chicken, and half the quantity of cooked sweetbreads cut fine. Mayonnaise.

CHICKEN AND NUT SALAD

Add a few pecans or English walnuts, cut coarsely, to chicken salad.

ALMOND SALAD

Stone and chop six olives. Add half a cupful of blanched and shredded almonds, and half a cupful of tender celery cut fine. Serve on lettuce leaves, with mayonnaise.

ASPARAGUS SALAD

Boil, drain, and cool the asparagus. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing, and garnish with slices of hard-boiled egg.

APPLE AND CRESS SALAD

Cut sour apples into dice. Mix with watercress, carefully picked over, and French dressing.

APRICOT SALAD

Chill the fruit, pare, stone, cut in halves, arrange on lettuce leaves, and pour over French dressing made with lemon-juice.

ASPARAGUS AND SALMON SALAD

Flake cold, boiled salmon, mix with cooked asparagus tips, and add a little finely cut celery. Mayonnaise.

BEAN SALAD

Lima beans boiled, drained, and cooled, chopped onion and minced parsley. Mayonnaise.

BORDEAUX SALAD

Celery and olives, coarsely cut. Mayonnaise.

BANANA SALAD

Chill the fruit, peel, slice thin, pour over French dressing made with lemon-juice, and serve at once on lettuce leaves.

BANANA AND CHERRY SALAD

Prepare as above, mixing the bananas with a few maraschino cherries, cut into quarters.

BANANA AND PIMENTO SALAD

Prepare as above, using shredded scarlet pimentos instead of the cherries.

BANANA AND CELERY SALAD

Six bananas, half a cupful of nuts cut fine, and two stalks of celery cut fine. Peel the bananas carefully, cut the fruit into dice, mix with the nuts and celery, add mayonnaise, fill the banana skins, chill, and serve on lettuce leaves.

BIRD’S-NEST SALAD

Take the yolks of hard-boiled eggs and rub to a paste with an equal quantity of Neufchatel cheese. Season with salt and paprika, and make into egg-shaped balls. Make a mound of the shredded whites and lay the egg-balls upon it, flecking them with black pepper. Surround the dish with the heart-leaves of head lettuce, and serve mayonnaise dressing in a dish apart.

CELERY SALAD

Crisp, tender celery cut fine, mixed with a little chopped onion and mayonnaise. Serve on lettuce.

CAULIFLOWER SALAD

Boil a large cauliflower in salted water until tender. Drain, cool, separate the flowerets, sprinkle with chopped onion and parsley, and set on ice. When thoroughly chilled, mix with mayonnaise, and serve on lettuce leaves.

BOHEMIAN SALAD

Mix fried oysters or fried scallops, cold, with half the quantity of finely cut celery. Serve very cold on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise.

CRAB SALAD

Use the meat of boiled crabs flaked into pieces of uniform size. The canned crab meat is very good. Add half the quantity of finely cut celery, mix with mayonnaise, and serve on lettuce leaves.

CRESS SALAD

Watercress and nasturtium leaves. French dressing. Garnish with nasturtium blossoms.

CALF’S-BRAIN SALAD

Parboil the brains in acidulated water, blanch, cool, and remove all veins and membranes. Break in pieces and proceed as for Crab Salad.

CUCUMBER SALAD

Peel, slice, and chill the cucumbers. Drain, mix with chopped onion, or small bits of the large white onions. French dressing.

CUCUMBER AND RADISH SALAD

Prepare as above, and add a few radishes, sliced but not peeled. The onion may be omitted.

COTTAGE CHEESE SALAD

Make soft cottage cheese into balls the size of a bird’s egg. Arrange carefully with cucumber dice and a little chopped onion. French dressing.

CREAM CHEESE SALAD

Prepare cheese as above, coloring the balls with spinach juice or green color paste. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, arrange on lettuce leaves, and pour over French dressing.

CUCUMBER JELLY

Cut peeled tomatoes and cucumbers into dice, saving the juice. Season with grated onion, pepper, and salt. Mix with hot water, in which gelatine has been dissolved, let cool, break up and serve in tomato shells with mayonnaise. When gelatine is used in salads, half a package to each two cupfuls of salad material is about the right proportion.

CHERRY SALAD

Maraschino or ox-heart cherries stuffed with hazel nuts. Serve very cold on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise.

CELERY AND NUT SALAD

Celery and pecans, or English walnuts, coarsely cut. Mayonnaise.

CAULIFLOWER AND BEET SALAD

Cooked cauliflower flowerets and dice of cold, boiled beets. Serve on lettuce with mayonnaise.

CHEESE AND TOMATO SALAD

Slices of tomato with small bits of Edam cheese. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing.

CELERY JELLY SALAD

Put into a saucepan two cupfuls of strained tomatoes, a tablespoonful of grated onion, a bay leaf, and a pinch of celery seed. Bring to a boil, set aside for fifteen minutes, add half a package of gelatine that has been soaked in half a cupful of cold water, half a teaspoonful of salt, and the juice of half a lemon. Stand over boiling water until the gelatine is all dissolved. Strain, stir in a quantity of finely cut celery, set on ice, stir until it begins to thicken, mould in small cups, and chill. At serving-time, turn out on a bed of lettuce leaves and mask with mayonnaise.

CHESTNUT SALAD

Shell and blanch the nuts, boil until tender, drain, and peel. Add an equal quantity of finely cut celery and some bits of pimento. Mayonnaise.

CHICKEN ASPIC SALAD

Use strong, clear chicken stock or the chicken juice which comes in cans, and half a package of gelatine to each pint. When the jelly begins to thicken, stir in lightly broken English walnuts, mould, chill, turn out on plates covered with lettuce leaves, and mask with mayonnaise.

TOMATO ASPIC SALAD

Use the juice and strained pulp of fresh or canned tomatoes. Season highly with salt, pepper, grated onion, and vinegar. Use half a package of gelatine to each two cupfuls of juice and pulp, mould in small cups, chill, turn out on lettuce leaves, and mask with mayonnaise.

BELLEVUE SALAD

Make the tomato aspic according to directions given above. When it begins to stiffen, stir in lightly flaked shrimps and cucumber dice, mould, chill, turn out on individual serving dishes, surround with the tender heart-leaves of head lettuce, and mask with mayonnaise dressing.

CHICKEN SALAD EN BELLEVUE

Make the tomato aspic and mould in a border mould. At serving-time turn out upon a platter, fill the centre with chicken salad and surround with tomato aspic. Garnish with the heart-leaves of head lettuce.

CUCUMBER ASPIC SALAD

Chop cucumbers fine, or grate on a coarse grater. Season with onion and celery, or a little celery seed. Add salt, pepper, and vinegar to taste, and save every drop of the juice. Tint with green color paste if desired. Use one package of gelatine to each quart of the pulp, and proceed according to directions given for other aspic salads. Turn into a border mould and chill on ice. At serving-time cover the platter with lettuce leaves, turn the border out of the mould and fill the centre with a fish salad.

CELERY AND RADISH SALAD

Prepare the celery as usual, but do not peel the radishes. Slice them thin and leave the little red line around each slice. Chill thoroughly, mix with mayonnaise, and serve on lettuce leaves. Garnish with whole radishes.

CABBAGE SALAD

Select a small, heavy, shapely head of white cabbage. Cut a slice off the top and scoop out the interior carefully, leaving a thin shell. Shred the inner portion with an equal quantity of crisp celery, mix with mayonnaise and serve in the cabbage. A few nut meats may be added. Sometimes the cabbage bowl is filled with fried oysters, and the celery and cabbage salad served on lettuce leaves.

SALAD À L’ESPAGNOLE

Scald, skin, and cool large, smooth tomatoes, cut a slice off the blossom end and scoop out the pulp with a silver spoon. Drain the pulp, add an equal quantity of cucumber dice, cut small, and a little grated onion to season, mix with a French dressing and fill the tomato shell with the mixture. Put a spoonful of mayonnaise on top of each tomato and serve on individual plates covered with lettuce leaves.

GRAPE SALAD

Use large, white, California grapes, peel, seed, and cut in halves. Mix with sour orange slices, and any preferred nuts. Use French dressing made with lemon-juice, and serve on lettuce leaves.

GRAPE SALAD – II

Prepare as above, using apples in place of the oranges.

GRAPEFRUIT SALAD

Break the pulp of grapefruit into small bits and drain, reserving the juice. Arrange on lettuce leaves, sprinkle with cut English walnuts, and pour over a French dressing made of oil and the juice of the fruit.

ITALIAN SALAD

Six cold, cooked potatoes, cut in dice, six flaked sardines, three small cucumber pickles, chopped, and a stalk of celery cut fine. French dressing.

LETTUCE SALAD

Use the crisp heart-leaves of head lettuce, and dress with French dressing. Serve with cheese and toasted crackers.

ENDIVE SALAD

Use the crisp leaves of endive and prepare as above.

MARGUERITE SALAD

Make a bed of lettuce leaves on each individual dish. Slice hard-boiled eggs lengthwise, and remove the yolks whole. Put a yolk in the centre of each plate and arrange the white around it, cut in strips to resemble the petals of a Marguerite. French dressing.

MARQUISE SALAD

Tomatoes sliced and sprinkled with chopped onion, parsley and finely cut celery. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing.

NORMANDY SALAD

Three cucumbers and three hard-boiled eggs, cut in dice, a cupful of olive meat, and half a cupful of pecan or English walnut meat, broken, but not chopped. Mayonnaise. The egg may be omitted.

NUT AND SWEETBREAD SALAD

A can of shrimps, a pound and a half of sweetbreads, cooked and cut into dice, a can of French peas, a can of mushrooms, a cupful of English walnuts, half a cupful of blanched almonds, and a cupful of finely cut celery. Mix with mayonnaise and serve on lettuce leaves. Half, or even a third, of this quantity is sufficient for a small family.

ORANGE SALAD

Thin slices of very sour oranges, sprinkled with cut English walnuts. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing made with lemon-juice. Especially good with game.

PIMENTO SALAD

Shredded pimentos, sliced olives, finely cut celery, and a tablespoonful of chopped onion to each pint. Mayonnaise. This salad should be half celery, one fourth pimentos, and one fourth olives.

PIMENTO SALAD – II

Hard-boiled eggs cut into eighths. Half the quantity of shredded pimentos, and as much olive meat as pimentos. To each pint of the salad add one tablespoonful of the tiny pearl onions which come in bottles. Mix with mayonnaise, and serve on lettuce leaves.

PEPPER SALAD

Sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, shredded green peppers, chopped onion, and French dressing.

PARISIAN SALAD

Boil French peas in their own juice, drain, cool, and mix with cut walnut meats. Soak for an hour in French dressing, drain, put into lemon cups on lettuce leaves, and serve with a spoonful of mayonnaise on top.

PORTUGUESE SALAD

Celery, English walnuts, and shredded pimentos. Mayonnaise.

PEACH SALAD

Prepare according to directions given for Apricot Salad, and stuff the halves with maraschino cherries and chopped nuts.

RUSSIAN SALAD

Make tomato aspic in a border mould, turn out on a platter and fill the centre with celery mayonnaise.

PINEAPPLE SALAD

Pineapple, oranges, bananas, and strawberries, cut coarsely. French dressing made with lemon-juice. Serve in the pineapple shell, or in orange baskets, or banana skins.

SCALLOP SALAD

Parboil the scallops, drain, and cool. Cut coarsely, and mix with half the quantity of finely cut celery. Mayonnaise.

OYSTER SALAD

Prepare according to directions given above. Mushrooms may be added if desired.

STUFFED-TOMATO SALAD

Scald, drain, skin, and chill large, well-shaped, ripe tomatoes. Cut a slice off the blossom end, scoop out the pulp, drain, mix with an equal quantity of finely cut celery and a little minced onion. Mix with mayonnaise, fill the shells, put a spoonful of stiff mayonnaise on top, with a little sprig of parsley upright for a garnish, or an English walnut meat. Any salad which combines well with the flavor of tomato may be served in tomato shells, and as a cupful of salad will stuff several tomatoes, the problem of insignificant salad left-overs is often solved in this way.

SHRIMP SALAD

Use either canned or fresh shrimps. Break into small bits, mix with mayonnaise, and serve on lettuce leaves.

SUMMER SALAD

Slice peeled tomatoes, drain, and mix with sliced cucumbers and finely chopped onion. Mayonnaise.

SALMON SALAD

Use boiled, fresh salmon. Free from skin, fat, and bone, and flake. Mix with finely cut celery and a few capers. Mayonnaise.

SALMON SALAD – II

Prepare as above, using cucumber dice and a bit of chopped onion instead of the celery and capers. Mayonnaise.

SARDINE SALAD

Drain the sardines, sprinkle with lemon-juice, and alternate with hard-boiled egg quarters on a bed of lettuce leaves. French dressing.

SHAD ROE SALAD

Boil the roe, chill, slice, and add finely cut celery and boiled beet dice. Mayonnaise.

SHAD ROE SALAD – II

Prepare the roe as above and mix with sliced cucumbers. Season with chopped onion and mix with mayonnaise.

SWEETBREAD SALAD

Prepare according to directions given for Calf’s-Brain Salad.

SALSIFY SALAD

Boil, drain, and cool, cut into dice and combine with an equal quantity of potatoes, lima beans, or cauliflower. French dressing.

SPINACH SALAD

Mould cooked and chopped spinach in small cups. Turn out on individual dishes, garnish with hard-boiled eggs and beet dice. French dressing.

STRING BEANS SALAD

String the beans, but do not cut them. Boil, drain, and cool. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing and garnish with nasturtium blossoms.

SHRIMP AND CUCUMBER SALAD

Cut the shrimps coarsely and sprinkle with French dressing. At serving-time, drain, mix with an equal quantity of crisp cucumber dice, and serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise.

VIENNA SALAD

Finely cut celery, apple dice, and shreds of green pepper. Mayonnaise.

WALDORF SALAD

Sour apples, peeled and sliced, English walnuts, and finely cut celery. Mayonnaise.

MUTTON SALAD

Cut cold roast or boiled mutton into dice, using none of the fat. Arrange on lettuce leaves, season with salt and pepper, add a few capers, and mix with mayonnaise dressing.

MUTTON AND ASPARAGUS SALAD

Prepare according to directions given above, using an equal quantity of cold, cooked asparagus instead of the capers.

MUTTON AND PEA SALAD

Prepare according to directions given above, using peas instead of asparagus.

CHESTNUT SALAD – II

Prepare according to directions given for Chestnut Salad – I. Mix with an equal quantity of sour apples cut into dice. Mayonnaise.

CRESS AND WALNUT SALAD

Wash and drain a bunch of watercress, pick off the tender sprigs and place in a salad bowl. Add half the quantity of broken English-walnuts which have been soaked in lemon-juice. Dress with a French dressing made of twice as much oil as vinegar and no seasoning except salt.

SHAD ROE SALAD – III

Cook the roe with a slice of onion in salted, acidulated water for twenty minutes. Drain, cool, cut into slices, and sprinkle with French dressing. Add cucumber dice and chopped olives. Mix with mayonnaise, garnish with peppers, and serve on lettuce leaves.

SALMON SALAD – III

Open a can of salmon, break into large pieces, remove the bones, skin, and fat, and lay on a plate. Slice two tomatoes and mince finely a few small cucumber pickles. Mix the tomatoes with the pickle and put around the salmon, with a little on top. Cover with a mayonnaise, to which chopped pickles and capers have been added, and garnish with lettuce and parsley.

ITALIAN SARDINE SALAD

Four sardines, three large potatoes, three eggs, seasoning, four anchovies, half a cupful of lima beans cooked, and plenty of oil and vinegar. Bake the potatoes, peel them, and set them aside to cool. Boil the eggs hard. Slice the potatoes into a bowl and add the beans. Skin and bone the sardines and anchovies, break into bits, and mix them with the vegetable. Put the yolks of two of the eggs into a bowl, add a pinch each of mustard and salt and enough oil to make a smooth cream. Add one third as much vinegar as oil. Pour this dressing over the vegetables and add the shredded whites of the eggs. Garnish with the whole egg cut in slices and a few stoned olives.

EGG AND CHEESE SALAD

Slice half a dozen hard-boiled eggs. Line a salad dish with lettuce leaves, cover with a layer of the eggs, and sprinkle thickly with grated cheese. Thin some mayonnaise with a little cream and spread over the cheese. Add another layer of eggs and cheese and a sprinkling of chopped cucumber pickle. Put in the remainder of the eggs, cover with mayonnaise and sprinkle more cheese over all.

CELERY AND PINEAPPLE SALAD

Use equal parts of shredded pineapple and celery, cut fine. Sprinkle with lemon-juice, and chill. Add a few blanched and pounded almonds, mix with mayonnaise, and serve on lettuce leaves.

VEAL SALAD

One cupful of cold roast veal cut into dice. Add one cupful of cooked peas. Sprinkle with celery salt, chopped capers and pickles, and pour over a French dressing, seasoned with dry mustard and chopped mint. In making the French dressing for this salad, use ordinary cider vinegar instead of tarragon vinegar.

TOMATOES STUFFED WITH ASPARAGUS TIPS

Prepare tomato shells according to directions previously given. Cut cold, cooked asparagus tips in small bits, mix with mayonnaise, and fill the shells. Season with grated onion if desired.

TUTTI-FRUITTI SALAD

One half pound of figs, cut in small pieces, one quarter pound of stoned dates, four oranges cut into small slices, one cupful of canned strawberries, one cupful of canned pineapple, the juice of one lemon, three or four tablespoonfuls of sugar, and one cupful of sherry. While this is not strictly a salad, it is served on lettuce leaves in place of a salad. Half or a third of the quantity is sufficient for a small family.

SPAGHETTI SALAD

Shredded celery, boiled spaghetti broken into inch pieces, and bits of Spanish pimento. Mix with mayonnaise and serve on lettuce leaves.

SWEETBREAD AND CUCUMBER SALAD

Mix cooked sweetbreads, cut into dice, with half the amount of cucumbers cut the same size, and a little finely cut celery. Mix with mayonnaise and serve on lettuce leaves.

HAM AND CELERY SALAD

Cut cold, cooked ham into bits and mix with half as much celery cut fine. Mix with mayonnaise and serve on lettuce leaves. Garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut in slices.

EGG AND POTATO SALAD

Dress slices of cold, hard-boiled eggs and potatoes with French dressing, arrange on lettuce leaves, and garnish with stoned olives.

CHEESE AND PARSLEY SALAD

Moisten Neufchatel or cream cheese with cream, and shape in tiny balls. Roll in very finely minced parsley, and serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing.

CHERRY AND PINEAPPLE SALAD

Half of a banana, one orange, one cupful of shredded pineapple, one cupful of stoned cherries, one fourth cupful of blanched almonds, the juice of half a lemon, and one tablespoonful of powdered sugar. Use the cherry juice in a French dressing.

SHRIMP AND CELERY SALAD

Equal parts of shredded shrimps and finely cut celery. Mix with mayonnaise and serve on lettuce leaves.

POTATO AND NUT SALAD

Three cold, boiled potatoes, three hard-boiled eggs, one half cupful of walnuts, and a dozen olives. Cut the potatoes and eggs into dice, stone the olives, cut fine, break up the nut meats and mix all together. Pour over a small quantity of French dressing and let stand on ice. At serving-time, mix with a little mayonnaise.

EGG AND CHICKEN SALAD

Chop cold roast chicken very fine. Mix the yolks of hard-boiled eggs with the chicken, adding enough mayonnaise to make the mixture easily into balls. Cut the whites of the eggs into rings, and serve the balls and the rings together on lettuce leaves.

CABBAGE AND PEPPER SALAD

Shred finely a crisp, raw cabbage. Mix with half as much shredded green pepper. Serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise.

CHEESE AND CELERY SALAD

Cut crisp, tender celery into small bits, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing.

CELERY AND CAULIFLOWER SALAD

Equal parts of finely cut celery and cold, cooked cauliflower broken into bits. Either French dressing or mayonnaise.

CAULIFLOWER AND CARROT SALAD

Cold, cooked cauliflower broken into bits, and one third the quantity of cooked carrots cut into dice. Either French or mayonnaise dressing.

PEA AND WALNUT SALAD

Equal quantities of cold, cooked peas and English walnuts broken into small bits. Sprinkle with French dressing, let stand half an hour and mix with mayonnaise. Serve on lettuce leaves or in lemon cups.

RUSSIAN SALAD – II

Equal quantities of cooked potato dice, peas, carrots, lima beans, shredded celery, sliced tomatoes, chopped onion, cucumber dice and anchovies broken into small bits. French dressing, using more vinegar than usual.

GERMAN CAULIFLOWER SALAD

Use cold, cooked cauliflower separated into flowerets. Fry shredded bacon until crisp, drain, and mix with the cauliflower. Make a French dressing, using the bacon fat instead of oil, and cider vinegar instead of tarragon. Pour hot over the salad and set away to cool.

SPANISH SALAD

Cut into dice three slices of stale bread. Add an equal quantity of cold, cooked potatoes, three tomatoes, sliced, and one onion chopped fine. Rub the salad bowl with the cut side of a clove of garlic, put in the salad, and pour over plenty of French dressing.

ONION SALAD

Peel two or three onions, soak in water two hours, chop, put into a salad bowl, add a tablespoonful of minced parsley and pour over French dressing. The large, white Spanish onions are best for this salad. One large onion is usually enough.

RUSSIAN SALAD – III

Cut crisp, tender celery into small bits, add one fourth the quantity of Russian caviare and the same quantity of anchovies as caviare. Add half as much tomato pulp as celery and mix with mayonnaise. Serve in tomato shells.