A Little Cook Book for a Little Girl Part 9

String Bean Salad

Take cold string beans, either the green ones or the yellow, pour the dressing over, put on ice, and serve on lettuce. Any cold vegetables can be used besides these, especially asparagus, while lettuce alone is best of all.

Pineapple Salad

Put large bits of picked-up pineapple on white lettuce, and pour the dressing over.

Orange or Grapefruit Salad

Peel three oranges or one grapefruit, and sc.r.a.pe off all the white lining of the skin. Divide it into sections, or ''quarters,'' and with the scissors cut off the thin edge; turn down the transparent sides and cut these off, too, sc.r.a.ping the pulp carefully, so as not to waste it. Take out all the seeds; lay the pieces on lettuce, and pour the dressing over. White grapes, cut in halves, with the seeds taken out, are nice mixed with this, and pineapple, grapes, and oranges, with a little banana, are delicious.

Mayonnaise

Yolk of 1 egg.

1/2 cup of olive-oil.

1 tablespoonful of lemon juice or vinegar.

1/2 teaspoonful of salt.

Pinch of red pepper.

Put the yolk of the egg into a very cold bowl; it is better to put the bowl, the egg, the oil, and the beater all on the ice a half-hour before you need them, for then the mayonnaise comes quicker.

With a Dover egg-beater beat till the yolk is very light indeed; then have some one else begin to put in the oil, one drop at a time, till the mayonnaise becomes so thick it is difficult to turn the beater; then put in a drop or two of lemon or vinegar, and this will thin it so you can use the oil again; keep on doing this till you have nearly a cup of the dressing; if you need more oil than the rule calls for, use it, and toward the last add it two or three drops at a time. When you have enough, and it is stiff enough, put in the pepper and salt and it is done. Never use mustard except with lobster, as this will spoil the taste. Some salads, especially fruit and vegetable, need very thick mayonnaise, and then it is better to make it with lemon juice, while a fish salad, or one to use with meats, may be thinner, and then the vinegar will do; the lemon juice makes it thick. Always taste it before using it, to see if it is just right, and, if not, put in more salt, or whatever it needs. You will soon learn. Most people think mayonnaise is very difficult to make, but, really, it is as easy as baking potatoes, after you have once learned how. Every salad given before is just as nice with mayonnaise as with French dressing, and you can try each one both ways; then there are these, which are better with mayonnaise.

Chicken Salad

1 cup of chicken cut in large bits.

1/2 cup of celery, cut up and then dried.

2 hard-boiled eggs, cut into good-sized pieces.

6 olives, stoned and cut up.

1/2 cup mayonnaise.

Mix all very lightly together, as stirring will make the salad mussy; put on lettuce.

Lobster Salad

1 cup of lobster, cut in large bits.

2 hard-boiled eggs, cut in pieces.

1/2 teaspoonful of dry mustard, stirred in.

1/2 cup of mayonnaise.

Mix and put on lettuce.

Celery Salad

2 heads of celery.

3 hard-boiled eggs (or else 1 cup of English walnuts).

1/2 cup very stiff mayonnaise.

Wash, wipe, and cut the celery into pieces as large as the first joint of your little finger, and then rub it in a clean towel till it is as dry as can be. Cut up the eggs, sprinkle all with salt, and add the mayonnaise and lay on lettuce. Or mix the celery and the walnuts and mayonnaise; either salad is nice.

Celery and Apple Salad

2 sweet apples.

1 head of celery.

1/2 cup of English walnuts, broken up.

1/2 cup mayonnaise.

Peel the apples and cut into very small bits; chop the celery and press in a towel; chop or break up the walnuts, but save two halves for each person besides the half-cupful you put in the salad. Mix all together, lay on white hearts of lettuce on plates, and then put the walnuts on top, two on each plate.

Cabbage Salad

1/2 a small cabbage.

1 cup very stiff mayonnaise.

1 teaspoonful celery-seed.

Cut the cabbage in four pieces and cut out the hard core; slice the rest very fine on the cutter you use for Saratoga potatoes; mix with the mayonnaise and put in the salad-dish; sprinkle over with celery-seed, when you wish it to be very nice, but it will do without this last touch.

Cabbage Salad in Green Peppers

Wipe green peppers and cut off the small end of each. Take out the seed and the stem; fill each pepper with the cabbage salad, letting it stand out at the top; put each one on a plate on a leaf of lettuce.

Stuffed Tomato Salad

1 cup of cut-up celery.

1/2 cup of English walnuts.

6 small, round tomatoes.

1/2 cup of mayonnaise.

Peel the tomatoes and scoop out as much of the inside as you can, after cutting a round hole in the stem end; make a salad with the celery, the cut-up walnuts, and the mayonnaise, and fill the tomatoes, letting it stand up well on top. Serve on plates, each one on a leaf of lettuce.

Potato Salad

3 cold boiled potatoes.

3 hard-boiled eggs.

1/2 cup English walnuts.

12 olives.