The household cook book

The vegetables used in salads should be very carefully cleaned, using ice-cold water to wash them in, and they should be afterwards carefully dried in a towel. Do not break the leaves if you can help it, as that will make them wilt quickly. Putting lettuce, cabbage, celery, etc., into ice-cold water for 2 or 3 hours will make them crisp. Vegetable salads are best eaten at once after they are made, but chicken salad will keep a number of days in cold weather. As a knife when used on a vegetable salad will blacken it, and impair its crispness, it is better to avoid using one; use a wooden spoon to stir a salad, and stir no more than necessary. The freshest olive salad oil is the best to use. Cotton-seed oil is often sold as olive oil, which is a fraud, but if sold at a, fair price under its true name, its use is unobjectionable, as it is a nutritious vegetable oil. Melted butter is used instead of oil by some people, who say they like it better. While melted butter may do for family use, oil is the only thing for " state occasions." Arrange a salad on a platter or in an earthen salad bowl; never put it in glass, as it looks disagreeably smeary when you begin to dish it out. As lettuce is necessary to so many salads, a word may be said about the proper way to prepare it. It is quite apt to be infested with insects which penetrate even to the inner leaves, and therefore each leaf must be carefully washed and examined. Let it stand in very cold water an hour or longer, shake in a wire basket or coarse towel to free it from water, and put in the ice-box until serving time. An easier and quicker way than cutting lettuce for salad is to lay 6 or 8 leaves together in the hand and twist and tear them apart; it is better to tear than to cut it. There is a common idea that salads are difficult to make and are principally adapted for the wealthy, or for special occasions. This is a mistake, as they can be made from " left-over " vegetables, and so are economical, and they are easily prepared when one knows how. The common people among the French use them almost daily, and to advantage. The vegetables used should be drained or dried thoroughly from the water, or the dressing when applied will be watery, and spoil the salad. Do not prepare plain salads until wanted at the table; if prepared long beforehand, the lettuce withers, and the dressing becomes watery. There is an admirable Spanish proverb about dressing salads. It says it requires 4 persons to mix a salad; a spendthrift to throw in the oil, a miser to drop in the vinegar, a lawyer to add the seasoning, and a madman to stir it together. To Fringe Celery. — A simple and convenient way to fringe celery stalks, is to take a cork, put many large needles in the end, and then cut the celery into pieces about 2 inches long, and draw about half of each strip through the needles a few times. When well shredded, put away to become crisp in a cold place. Thus prepared it makes a good garnish for salads, meats, etc. To Marinate a salad, is to let it stand for a time to season, sprinkled with a French dressing.