French Salad

Ingredients

• a head of lettuce
• three or four heaps of finely-chopped herbs (fines herbes)
• a little salt
• the best salad-oil
• the best vinegar

Method

1. 1

   Detach and cleanse each lettuce leaf, ensuring they are perfectly dry.

2. 2

   Remove stalks and divide larger leaves in half.

3. 3

   Dry leaves using a towel or a wire basket.

4. 4

   Place leaves in a bowl, sprinkle with chopped herbs and salt.

5. 5

   Drizzle with salad oil and vinegar, stirring gently to avoid bruising the leaves.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The art of living in Australia (1893) by Philip E. Muskett, page 114. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

French salad, too, the stalks or coarse ribs are removed from the middle part of each leaf, and the larger leaves also are carefully divided into halves. The whole leaf is not chopped up into shreds, as in the English salad. After this the drying of the leaves is best accom- plished by placing them within a clean towel. Instead of the towel a wire basket, fanwr a salade, is more convenient and is generally used in France ; it should be easily obtain- able" for a shilling or two. In using the towel the four corners are held together in the right hand, and the whole is repeatedly brought sharply round with a swing of the arm, stopping with a sudden jerk, till all the water is driven off on the floor. Herein consists the excellence of the French method, for the leaves are thoroughly cleansed, the acrid parts are removed, and the leaves are perfectly dry. On a small plate, near by, are usually three or four heaps of finely- chopped herbs (fines herbes), namely, burnet, chervil, chives, tarragon, mustard and cress, or even parsley ; these consti- tute what is known as " the fourniture " of the salad. The lettuce leaves, on being taken out of the towel, are then placed within the bowl, and over them is daintily spread whatever is required from each of the little heaps of herbs already referred to. A little salt is next to be quietly tapped over the salad, and the spoon salad-server is then filled once or twice with the best salad-oil, and this is now sprinkled on the salad, carefully turning the leaves over the while so as to obtain the thinnest possible film of oil equally distributed over the whole surface of each leaf. The salad spoon is next half-filled with the best vinegar

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.