Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

It was a favourite saying of John Evelyn, the author of the “ Sylva ,” that he did not care for fish or meat when “ a well-drest and excellent Sallet was before him.” His last work, written in 1699, when he was nearly eighty, was a treatise on the thirty-five varieties of plants which London, the Royal gardener, recommended for Sallets. Evelyn’s directions for Salad-dressing might well be followed now. He deprecates the practice of washing the Salad, and the use of much vinegar, but he explains that the Salad cannot be too much worked and stirred, until every leaf is equally moistened. The French emigres who fled to England during the troubled years between 1790 and 1804 gave a great impetus to Salad making in this country. Two Frenchmen made large incomes in London by going about to dress Salads. One charged a guinea, the other half-a-guinea, for each visit, and both went about in their own carriages. But in later days Salads as well as vegetables went out of fashion in England. A great dandy, in the reign of George the Fourth, was fond of saying that he could always tell if a man was a gentleman by his choice of vegetables. If he ate only truffles, morels, mushrooms, and green peas in them first week, he was a man of birth and culture ; but if he ate older peas or any other vegetables he was undoubtedly coarse in nature and vulgar in mind. This fine gentleman would probably have considered an eater of Salads only fit to associate with Nebuchadnezzar when he lost his reason, “was driven from men, and ate grass like an ox.” As to Salad-dressing, the old Spanish saying holds good still. “ Be a Sage with the salt, a Miser with the vinegar, a Spend- “ thrift with the oil, and a Maniac with the working of the “ dressing.” Sydney Smith thought more of his rhyme than of his Salad when he wrote his famous recipe. He advised the use of far too much vinegar, and even suggested anchovy sauce. Yet Sydney Smith prided himself on his Salad. He says ( Memoir , vol. i, p. 425) : — “ Our forte in the culinary line is our “ Salads. ‘ Saba ’ (his eldest daughter) always dresses them “ after my recipe. I have put it into verse. Taste it, and, if “ you like it, I will give it you. I was not aware how much “ it had contributed to my reputation till I met Lady at “ Bowood, who begged to be introduced to me, saying she had “ so long wished to know me. I was of course highly flattered. “ till she added, ‘ For, Mr. Smith, I have heard so much of “ ‘ your recipe for Salads that I was most anxious to obtain it “ ‘ from you.’ Such and so various are the sources of fame ! “ To make this condiment, your poet begs The pounded yellow of two hard-boil’d eggs ; Two boil'd potatoes, pass’d through kitchen sieve, Smoothness and Softness to the Salad give. Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And, half-suspected, animate the whole. Of mordant mustard add a single spoon, Distrust the condiment that bites so soon. And deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt. .175 Four times the spoon with oil from Lucca brown, And twice with vinegar procured from town. Then, lastly, o’er the flavour’d compound toss A magic soupijon of anchovy sauce. Oh green and glorious ! Oh herbaceous treat 1 ’Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat. Back to the world he’d turn his fleeting soul,