The art of cooking

Wash the lettuce, dry the leaves carefully with a towel, and tearing it into irregular pieces, arrange them in the bottom of a salad bowl. Mix in a separate bowl the yolks of egg and salad oil which must be dropped upon the egg drop by drop, and when these are beaten to a cream, add thereto the Tarragon vinegar. Pour this over the lettuce in the salad bowl, sprinkle over all the remainder of the pepper and salt, and toss all lightly with a fork to distribute the dressing through the lettuce. 122 SALADS, Chop the Aspic jelly now coarsely, and arrange a wall of it around the sides of the salad bowl, taking care to keep the centre clear, and within this wall place the lobster cutlets in a circle. Into each of the cutlets stick one of the feelers from the lobster, rub the head with a little oil to brighten and bring out the color, and place it in the centre of the dish. Take the dried coral, and either pound it lightly in a mortar, or roll it fine upon a board with a rolling pin, and sprinkle a little of this over each cutlet, and the remainder over the wall of jelly. Notes — To boil lobsters, plunge them into boiling water in which a little salt has been dissolved, and boil them for twenty minutes rapidly. A plain lobster salad may be made by following the directions for shrimp salad, by substituting the meat of the lobster cut in coarse pieces for the shrimps. Cucumber Salad. — Three medium sized green cucumbers, two tablespoonfuls of salad oil, one tablespoonful of vinegar, one teaspoonful of salt, one-half teaspoonful of black pepper. The cucumbers should be kept upon the ice until thoroughly chilled which renders them pleasantly brittle, after which they should be pared lengthwise, taking care to cut deep enough to remove all of the green inner skin which is exceedingly bitter, and when pared slice them into round thin slices, Arrange these slices in a mound in a shallow salad bowl and mixing together the pepper, salt, oil and vinegar, pour this dressing over the cucumbers and stir all together until the dressing is well distributed when serving. LETTUCE SALAD, 123 Note, — ^A tomato salad may be prepared in this same manner with this difference, a little sugar must be added to the ingredients for the dressing. Beef Salad. — One pound of rare roast beef, onequarter of a boiled beet, one tablespoonful of vinegar, three tablespoonfuls of salad oil, one teaspoonful of salt, one-half teaspoonful of black pepper, one head of lettuce. Wash the lettuce, each leaf separately, dry it thoroughly with a towel, taking care not to crush or wilt it, and reserving the few delicate inner leaves for garnishing, tear the rest into irregular pieces and arrange them in the bottom of a salad bowl. Cut the beef into small square pieces, slice the beet and cut it also into pieces ; mixing both lightly together, put them in pyramidal shape upon the lettuce in the bowl and sprinkle over all the pepper and salt. Mix together in a separate bowl the vinegar and oil, and when thoroughly blended, pour this dressing over the salad, and garnish at the top with the small lettuce leaves. Note. — A salad may be made of sliced cold tongue by following the above directions and substituting the tongue for the cold roast beef. Lettuce Salad.— Two heads of lettuce, one dessert spoonful of salt, one-half teaspoonful of pepper, one tablespoonful of salad oil, three tablespoonfuls of vinegar, two hard boiled eggs. Separate the leaves of the heads of lettuce, wash them carefully, and dry each leaf thoroughly with a towel, handling them gently that they may be neither crushed nor wilted. Tear the leaves into pieces and arrange them lightly in a salad bowl. Sprinkle over them the SALADS.