Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book

Oyster Salad. — Steam or parboil one pint of oysters. Drain, cool, and marinate them with a French dressi^ig. Serve with cresses., celery^ or lettuce., and a Maj'onnaise dressing. Fish Salad. — One quart of any kind of cold cooked fish., flaked and freed from bones and skin, and placed on a bed of lettuce. Pound the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs., and three sardines (bones and skin removed) to a smooth paste. Mix this paste with the Boiled or the Mayonnaise dressing., and pour it over the fish. Gar- nish with slices of lemon. Chicken Salad. — One pint each of cold boiled or roasted chicken and celery.^ or half as much celery as Fig. 40. Chicken Salad. chicken. Cut the chicken into quarter-inch dice. Scrape, wash, and cut the celery in dice. Mix and marinate with a French dressing., and keep on the ice until ready to serve. Make a Mayonnaise dressing., and mix part of it with the chicken; arrange the salad in a dish, pour the remainder of the dressing over it, and garnish with celery The Boston Cook Book. 315 leaves and capers, or lettuce^ and yolk of hard-boiled egg rubbed through a fine strainer. Lohster Salad, — Cut one pint of lobster meat in dice, season with a French dressing,, and keep it on ice until ready to serve, then mix with half of the Mayonnaise dressing. Make nests or cups of the crisp lettuce leaves ; break the poorer lettuce leaves and mix with the lobster. Put a large spoonful of the lobster in each leaf, with a tablespoonful of the Mayonnaise on the top. Garnish with capers and pounded coral, sprinkled over the dress- ing, and with lohster claws smd parsley round the edge. Salmon Salad, — Prepare in the same way with cooked or canned salmon, freed from bones, skin, and oil. Salad Sandwiches, — Mix a small quantity of Mayon- naise dressing with finely chopped lohster or chicken. Cover a small slice of hread with lettuce, then the salad, lettuce, and bread again. Wrap them in tin foil or oiled paper, and serve at picnics or when travelling.* 3i6 The Boston Cook Book. PASTRY AND PIES. Puff Paste, when skilfully made, is light and tender, and so delicate that it cannot be touched without crushing. It should be thoroughly baked, and is therefore more suit- able for tarts and patties and the upper crust of pies. Eat it sparingly ; unless you have a good digestion, and exer- cise freely, never eat it. It is, however, less injurious than the ordinary pastry seen on many tables, as it con- tains no more shortening than much of the pastry made with a ''guess measure" of lard. It is not so much the amount of fat the paste contains that makes it indigestible, as the inferior quality of the fat, such as rancid butter or impure lard, or the soggy, greasy, half-cooked paste. Pastry that is light, dry, and flaky is more easily sepa- rated by the gastric fluids than that which is heavy. Many housekeepers use lard in making pastry, as it is cheaper than butter, and makes a softer and more tender crust. Butter is more wholesome, and is preferable if 3'ou wish to make a brown crust. A mixture of half lard and half butter answers very well for common paste, but for puff paste butter alone should be used. In French receipts for puff paste eggs are considered essential, but there is no necessity for their use.