Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Spring-Herbs Soup (excellent for purifying the blood). — Shred finely a handful of young dandelion-leaves, and the same quantity of chervil and purslain, together with five or six sorrel-leaves and two cabbage lettuces. Wash them well, then drain them, and steam them in a closely-covered saucepan with a little j pepper and salt and an ounce of fresh butter. In ten minutes dredge a table-spoonful of flour upon them, and add a pint and a half of white I stock. Let the soup simmer gently for a I quarter of an hour, and keep stirring it during j all the time. Strain into it half a pint of boiling I milk, and add a tea-spoonful of powdered white I sugar. Put the yolks of two eggs into the 1 soup-tureen. Beat them with a spooiful of I the soup, Avhich, though thoroughly hot, must not be quite boiling ; add the rest of the soup gradually, and serve immediately. If preferred, cream may be used instead of milk. Time, about an hour, exclusive of the time consumed in preparing the stock. Suflicient for four or five persons. Spring Salad. — Take young and freshlycut spring vegetables, such as lettuces, young radishes, mustard and cress, and a few spring onions, if liked. If they are clean and free from insects, look them carefully over, and wipe them with a cloth, or if necessary plunge them into cold water for a moment, but on no account let them remain in it longer than is necessary to cleanse them. If they have been washed, dry them perfectly. The best way of doing this is to let them drain for a little time, then put a small quantity at a time into a dry napkin ; shake this by the four corners till all the moisture is expelled. The goodness of a salad depends to a great extent upon the vegetables being perfectly dry. Tear them into small pieces with the hands; arrange them in the salad-bowl, so that the light and dark greens shall contrast prettily. Put the radishes and onions round, and garnish the dish with parsley or nasturtium leaves, beetroot, hardboiled egg, &c. Send any good salad-sauce {se€ Salad, Slayonnaise Sauce for) to table in a boat, and stir it briskly into the salad at the moment of serving. If it should be preferred, j the salad-sauce may be dispensed with, and the i salad prepared as follows : — For a moderatesized salad-bowl of salad, mix in the s;ilad-spoon a spoonful of mustard, a spoonful of salt, and half a spoonful of pepper, and stir into these a table-spoonful of vinegar, and if liked a few drops of tarragon vinegar may be added. Work these lightly but thoroughly into the salad, then put in four table -spoonfuls of best lucca oil, and stir the salad again for a few minutes. Serve immediately. Spring Salad (another way). — The following is an old-English spring salad of 1682 : — " There is a sort of salad commonly gathered in the spring, consisting of divers young buds and sprouts both of trees and herbs, the which being gathered discreetly with nothing but what is very young and tender, and so that no one thing exceed the other, but there may be a fine agreement in their relishing, so it will be very acceptable to many : Violets, small sprouts of bumet, young leaves of primroses and flowers, SPR ( 922 ) SPR mints, sorrel, buds of gooseberries, roses, barberries, flowers of burage, bugloss, cowslips, and archangel."