Salad with Tarragon and Garlic

Ingredients

• three or four fresh tarragon leaves
• a brimming saltspoonful of salt
• half a one of black pepper
• two or three more tablespoonfuls of oil
• a tablespoonful of ordinary vinegar
• a bead of garlic
• a small knob of crusty bread
• a few hard-boiled eggs

Method

1. 1

   Wash and dry the lettuce, then place in a salad bowl.

2. 2

   Chop tarragon leaves and sprinkle over the salad.

3. 3

   Mix salt and pepper with oil in a tablespoon, then pour over the lettuce.

4. 4

   Add more oil and toss lightly.

5. 5

   Finally, add vinegar and mix well.

6. 6

   Optionally, rub the bowl with garlic for flavor and serve with hard-boiled eggs.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c (1880), page 159. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

three or four fresh tarragon leaves, chop them up finely, and sprinkle them over the salad. Then take a brimming saltspoonful of salt and half a one of black pepper ; place them in the bowl of a tablespoon ; fill the spoon with oil, and mix them in the oil with a fork, and pour it over the lettuce. Now add two or three more tablespoonfuls of oil, tossing the lettuce about lightly with a spoon and fork, that the whole of the outside of the lettuce leaves may be oiled over. The reason for putting in the oil before the vinegar is this — the oil will not soak into the vegetable, but the vinegar will ; and when you add vinegar before oil to any salad it is very apt to soak into the leaves, the conse- quence being that after the salad is mixed some of the leaves are very acid, while some will have, comparatively speaking, no vinegar at all. Now take a tablespoonful of ordinary vinegar, 108 CROSSE AND BLACKWELL'S and add it to the salad. Mix the lettuce I well together, and the salad can be served. Some persons prefer a slight flavour of onion or garlic. For my own part I think garlic very superior to onion, but the garlic should be added with caution. Care should be taken that no solid pieces of the garlic itself get into the salad. The proper method of flavouring salad with garlic is to take a bead of garlic and to rub the salad- bowl with it before putting in the lettuce. This will be quite sufficient to impart a good strong flavour. Should rather more be required, take a small knob of crusty bread and rub upon it a bead of garlic, or two beads. The bread will absorb some of the garlic, and by simply tossing the bread about amongst the salad a very strong flavour of garlic will be impaired. Another great improvement to salad is to serve with it a few hard-boiled eggs

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