Culinary jottings

Very finely minced onion, curled parsley, and gardencress may be sprinkled over the lettuce leaves after the oil has been worked into them, but for dinner parties perhaps the " violet" had better be omitted (valuable as it is) or its absence supplied by a drop or two of shallot vinegar. And this leads me to aromatic vinegars, " without which," to use the outfitters favourite form of advertisement, *' no salad-maker's equipment can be considered complete" : — 1. — Tarragon Vinegar, 2. — Anchovy Vinegar, 3. — Shallot Vinegar, 4. — Elder Vinegar, 5. — Garlic Vinegar. These are all procurable at the shops of the leading preserved provision merchants at Madras, but the salad artist should make his own peculiar vinegars, and use them, according to judgment, to vary the too-often repeated flavours of ordinary compositions. Here are a few suggestions : — " Fines herbes vinegar" : — To half a pint of tarragon vinegar, add a table-spoonful of minced garden-cress, a table-spoonful of minced marjoram, a clove of garlic, two small green capsicums shred, and one minced shallot. Or : — To the same vinegar, add the finely-pared rind of three limes, a dozen cloves, a dozen pepper corns, and the same green herbs and onion. The bruised seed of garden-cress, celery, and parsley, in equal portions, — say a tea-spoonful of each, a clove of SALADS, 207 garlic, and two ordinary capsicums finely minced, make, when added to half a pint of tarragon vinegar, an invaluable element of salad dressing. In speaking of capsicums, I only allude to the skin, not to the pith or seeds. A very few drops of the strongly flavoured vinegars I have described are, of course, ample to " animate the bowl." A cook's ingenuity will aid him in concocting other varieties easily enough. When made, cork your bottle down tightly, seal it with wax, and set it in the sun, — an operation which presents but little difficulty in this country. In a week or two, you may strain the liquid, and take it into use. An excellent salad is that made by slicing raw ripe tomatoes, with a Bombay onion. The dressing given should be like that recommended for lettuce, only that, your allowance of oil must be abundant ; and, inasmuch as tomatoes are sweet, there may be a little freer use of the vinegar cruet. As in all salads, tarragon, or any aromatic vinegar, may be employed advantageously in this one, and minced fines herbes may be sprinkled over the whole. Strips of green capsicum harmonize most pleasantly with a tomato salad. This is obviously a dish for the sterner sex, and one which no man would partake of just before a ball, on his wedding day, or at all during the halcyon period which generally precedes that ceremony. 0 ! why is our rose thus thornily encumbered ? Why was it ordained that man should never eat of the fragrant bulb without remembering it to his sorrow ? I once heard an amateur cook say that the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden must have been an onion. " Hence," said he, " the curse it carries with it, and hence the universal dislike with which it is regarded by the ladies." But this man was a free thinker.