"Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve, Unwonted softness to the sah^d give. Of niordant mustard add a single spoon — Distrust the condiment which bites too soon — But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt. Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown. And once with vinegar procured from town. True flavour needs it, and your poet begs The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs. Let onion's atoms lurk within the bowl, And, scarce suspected, animate the whole. And lastly, on the flavoured componnd toss A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce✪ Winter Salad." Now, tlio Rev. Sydney Siiiitli wns a very witty and amiable cleric ; but I maintain, nevertheless, that his salad is simply a barbarous mess, tit only for the consumption of Goths, Ostrogoths, Tisiffoths, Huns, and '\'andals. Two large potatoes passed through a kitchen sieve ! Shade of Parraentier ! Mordant nuistard in a salad 1 A double quantity of salt, and a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce ! As for the onion atoms, lurking in the bowl, they are altogether intolerable if ladies are to partake of the salad. For male consumption a few spring onions may occasionally be allowed. The French put no onions in a green salad ; but they rub a crust of bread with garlic. This, technically known as a cliapon, is placed in the salad bowl, and rapidly tossed to and fro while the herbs are being mixed ; but before serving, the garlic-imbued chapon is removed. Although potatoes in a green salad should be altogether tabooed, the tuber makes an excellent salad by itself, and an equal I3" good and cheap soup. Among very cheap salads, also, I rcconnnend tomatoes dressed with oil and vinegar and a little chopped shallot. Fifty years ago tomatoes, or " love-apples," were scarce and CHATS ABOUT COOKERY. 25 dear, and were usually sold, preserved in bottles, as sauce for hot meat. At present there is usually an ample supply, and sometimes a glut, of tomatoes, English or foreign, sold at very reasonable prices. The fruit-vegetable — or vegetable- fruit — has become amazingly popular with the Avorking- classes, who often munch them raw, as they do apples ; but they would relish them much more, I think, if they cut the tomatoes into slices and dressed them in a salad as iibove ; or if they stuffed them with a mixture of chopped herbs, any scraps of meat, to the lowliest, that come handy, bread-crumb, and a little egg just to bind the stuffing✪ Tomato Salad; and so steam them till quite hot. And, again, there Avould not be the slightest harm in putting the stuffed tomatoes under- neath the meat which is to be roasted. They will then prove excellent sops-in-the-pan, and a relief to the monotony of the baked potato. But to return to green salads, as to the dressing of which people are apt to be very dogmatical, and occasionally very ill-tempered. Most men have their recipe for salad dressing, just as nearly every woman has her own recipe for a plum pudding, which recipe is, in nine cases out of ten, that wdiich was used by her mother.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

"Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve, Unwonted softness to the salad give. Of niordant mustard add a single spoon — Distrust the condiment which bites too soon — But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt. Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown. And once with vinegar procured from town. True flavour needs it, and your poet begs The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs. Let onion's atoms lurk within the bowl, And, scarce suspected, animate the whole. And lastly, on the flavoured compound toss A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce." NNow, the Rev. Sydney Smith was a very witty and amiable cleric ; but I maintain, nevertheless, that his salad is simply a barbarous mess, fit only for the consumption of Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Huns, and Vandals.Two large potatoes passed through a kitchen sieve ! Shade of Parmentier ! Mordant mustard in a salad !1 A double quantity of salt, and a teaspoonful of anchovy sauce ! As for the onion atoms, lurking in the bowl, they are altogether intolerable if ladies are to partake of the salad. For male consumption a few spring onions may occasionally be allowed. The French put no onions in a green salad ; but they rub a crust of bread with garlic. This, technically known as a chapon, is placed in the salad bowl, and rapidly tossed to and fro while the herbs are being mixed ; but before serving, the garlic-imbued chapon is removed. Although potatoes in a green salad should be altogether tabooed, the tuber makes an excellent salad by itself, and an equally good and cheap soup. Among very cheap salads, also, I recommend tomatoes dressed with oil and vinegar and a little chopped shallot. Fifty years ago tomatoes, or " love-apples," were scarce and dear, and were usually sold, preserved in bottles, as sauce for hot meat. At present there is usually an ample supply, and sometimes a glut, of tomatoes, English or foreign, sold at very reasonable prices. The fruit-vegetable — or vegetablefruit — has become amazingly popular with the Avorkingclasses, who often munch them raw, as they do apples ; but they would relish them much more, I think, if they cut the tomatoes into slices and dressed them in a salad as above ; or if they stuffed them with a mixture of chopped herbs, any scraps of meat, to the lowliest, that come handy, bread-crumb, and a little egg just to bind the stuffing; and so steam them till quite hot. And, again, there would not be the slightest harm in putting the stuffed tomatoes underneath the meat which is to be roasted. They will then prove excellent sops-in-the-pan, and a relief to the monotony of the baked potato. But to return to green salads, as to the dressing of which people are apt to be very dogmatical, and occasionally very ill-tempered. Most men have their recipe for salad dressing, just as nearly every woman has her own recipe for a plum pudding, which recipe is, in nine cases out of ten, that wdiich was used by her mother.

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