English and French cookery

Summer Salads. — (1) Dissolve \ teaspoonful of white or brown sugar in a tablespoonful of vinegar, add 3 drops of tarragon vinegar, and cayenne and salt to taste. Break up a lettuce or endive wiped very dry, and add about ^ teaspoonful of chopped chives ; pour over the lettuce a tablespoonful of oil, and well mix it about with a wooden spoon and fork ; then sprinkle the vinegar mixture over and turn all well about again. - Garnish with slices of cucumber cut thin, or raw tomatoes cut in quarters. (2) A fresh lettuce washed and wiped dry, chopped tarragon or mint, a few young onions or chives, and | cucumber. Put into a salad-bowl 2 tablespoonfuls of oil, a saltspoonful of salt, i teaspoonful of pepper, a dessertspoonful of sugar, and a dessertspoonful of vinegar. Then add the chopped mint or tarragon and the onions ; lastly, the lettuce broken up into small pieces, and stir all together, turning the lettuce over well. Garnish with slices of cucumber. (3) One raw egg well beaten up, a tablespoonful of oil, a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar, and a dessertspoonful of vinegar. Mix well together ; break up a lettuce, pour the mixture over it, and turn it about thoroughly. (4) Two tablespoonfuls of salad oil ; break 3 eggs, drop them into the oil, well beat them up, add a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar and a dessertspoonful of cream, mix and pour over the lettuce. This mixture will keep for several weeks if bottled and tightly corked up. (5) Cut up a cucumber into very thin slices, drain off all the water that comes from it by pressing the cut slices between 2 plates ; mix a tablespoon- ful of oil with a tablespoonful of vinegar, add pepper and salt, and pour over the sliced cucumber. — (6) Take 3 or 4 fine raw tomatoes, cut them up into quarters or halves ; make a dressing of a tablespoonful of oil, another of vinegar, a teaspoonful of tarragon vinegar, and a dessertspoonful of sugar ; pour it over the tomatoes ; garnish with watercress. All salads should be made about or £ of an hour before they are to be eaten. Hard-boiled eggs cut in slices may in all cases be used for garnishing. — (7) French beans, when very young, make excellent entremets as salad. Cook them rapidly in salted boiling water without a lid on the saucepan, then plunge into cold water. Carefully drain, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and vinegar, and so allow them to stand for some hours ; then pour the vinegar away, and stir over a dressing of oil and vinegar, with a slight sprinkling over the top of finely-chopped tarragon. Anchovy Salad. — Wash in cold water some salted anchovies, steep them in vinegar, drain them on a cloth, and take out their fillets, which shred likewise ; place them symmetrically on a small plate, or a hors d’ oeuvre dish, garnished with groups of hard-boiled eggs, chopped parsley and onion, separately also, with whole small capers. Pour a little oil over the whole, and serve. Sea-kale. — Well wash the kale, and tie into small bunches ; put it into boiling water with a little salt, and boil quickly until tender. Take it out, drain, untie the bunches, and serve with melted butter or white sauce.