Table Talk's illustrated cook book

ANY VEGETABLE, FISH OR MEAT SALAD IS MOUNDED UP ON A LETTUCE NEST; THEN COVERED WITH A MAYONNAISE. PETALS CUT FROM HARD BOILED EGGS STEEPED IN WATER COLORED WITH SAFFRON ARE ARRANGED AROUND CENTERS CUT FROM OLIVES. ITALIAN SALAD — [illustration: see opposite page] YANKEE SALAD. This salad may aptly be termed Yankee, since all its ingredients are homegrown vegetables — peas, cucumbers, beans, spinach, radishes and lettuce. The dressing is made with apple vinegar, olive oil and salt. ♦ ITALIAN SALAD. Mold cooked macaroni in tomato jelly ; when serving, fill the center with a mixture of cooked chopped clams, macaroni and celery moistened with mayonnaise. Garnish with sliced pimentos and lettuce. LOBSTER SALAD WITH SERVICE. LOBSTER SALAD. Plunge the lobster head downward, into a kettle containing sufficient warm water to completely submerge it. Cover, bring quickly to the boil, add one tablespoonful of salt, and boil thirty minutes for a lobster weighing under two pounds. When done, take from the water and set aside ; when cold enough to handle, break apart the tail and body, using a twisting motion; twist off the claws, and remove the body from the shell. Carefully lay aside the green fat, and coral ; remove the stomach, which is directly under the head, and the woolly gills; break open the body, and pick out the meat, crack open the claws, and remove the meat. Cut the soft shell on the under side of the tail, and draw out the meat. On the under side and running the entire length of the tail, is the intestine, which may be white, red or black in color ; remove and add the meat to that already laid aside. Cut all in pieces about one half inch in size, and marinate with a French dressing. This may be done some time before it is served. Arrange on lettuce leaves, and garnish with mayonnaise. Or the back and tail shells may be fitted together, lined with the lettuce leaves, the salad laid in, and the best looking claws used in addition to the other garnishes. FRENCH DRESSING. In a saucer or small shallow bowl place a half teaspoonful of salt, onequarter of a teaspoonful of black or white pepper and four table spoonfuls of olive oil. Stir occasionally until the salt is partly dissolved, then add, a few drops at a time, one tablespoonful of plain or tarragon vinegar. Stir briskly and constantly in one direction, being careful that each addition of vinegar is thoroughly emulsified or blended before the next is dropped in. When done the mixture will be a little thicker than at first, will be of a grayish tint, and no drops of vinegar can be seen. This dressing must be used as soon as made, as it quickly separates. When shredded cabbage is to be added to the salad it will be found advisable to add a tiny pinch of dry mustard to this mixture. Where sliced or chopped raw onion is objected to as an ingredient of a salad the necessary onion flavor may be had by adding half a teaspoonful or more of strained onion juice to the dressing. MAYONNAISE. For a small quantity allow a half pint of olive oil, the yolk of one raw egg, a third of a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of cayenne and about one tablespoonful of vinegar, or twice as much clear lemon juice, the exact amount of the acid to be regulated according to its strength. Have both ingredients and utensils as cold as possible, as this facilitates the process. Drop the tgg yolk in a bowl, add seasoning and stir with a fork or spoon (always in the same direction) until the egg begins to coagulate. Now add a very little oil — hardly more than a quarter of a teaspoonful at a time — and stir rapidly until it is assimilated. Continue to add oil until the mixture «7