SALADS

Salads play a most important part in all conventional suppers. Chicken, lobster, crab, duck, tongue, and lamb salad take the place of other meats, although for a large supper there is no objection to serving a meat salad following a hot course. If one can make a good mayonnaise dressing, salads are the easiest of all refreshments, and are most acceptable to the guests.

MAYONNAISE

Put the yolks of three eggs in a clean cold dish, beat slightly and add slowly, almost drop by drop, a half pint or more of salad oil. After adding the first half pint, add a half teaspoonful of vinegar now and then to prevent breaking. You may add a quart of oil, if you like; you may serve it plain, or stir in at the last moment stiffly whipped cream. One quart of mayonnaise will hold one quart of whipped cream. For light colored salads, as sweetbread and Waldorf, it is well to use the whipped cream slightly colored with a drop of vegetable green.

SAUCE TARTAR

Add to a half pint of mayonnaise dressing a tablespoonful of chopped gherkin, the same of chopped parsley, four chopped olives and a tablespoonful of capers.

SAUCE SUEDOISE

1/2 pint of mayonnaise 1/2 pint of cream 2 tablespoonfuls of finely grated horseradish

Whip the cream and drain it, then stir it carefully into the mayonnaise, and at last add the horseradish. This sauce is appropriate to serve with boned partridges or quail, and is also nice to serve with mixed cold meats.

FRENCH DRESSING

Put eight tablespoonfuls of oil in a bowl, add a half teaspoonful of salt, and a piece of ice the size of an egg. Work the ice with the oil until the salt is thoroughly dissolved, then add a tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar and a drop of Tabasco sauce. Remove the ice, beat rapidly until you have a creamy dressing, and use at once. French dressing should be used over cuc.u.mber or tomato molds, and is nice with fish or chicken mousse and East Indian Salad.

CUc.u.mBER MOLDS

2 good sized cuc.u.mbers 1/2 box of gelatin 1 pint of chicken stock 1 teaspoonful of salt 1 tablespoonful of onion juice 1 saltspoonful of pepper The juice of one lemon

Peel and grate the cuc.u.mbers. Add the gelatin to the stock, soak for twenty minutes, bring to a boil and add the seasoning; then stir in the drained cuc.u.mber. Turn into small round timbale cups and stand aside to harden.

Serve with any cold fish dish, as cold boiled slice of halibut, or fish in aspic. These are nice for Sunday night supper with broiled sardines.

TOMATO MOLDS

1 can of tomatoes 1 box of gelatin 1 onion 1 saltspoonful of celery seed 1 bay leaf 1 blade of mace 2 tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar 1 teaspoonful of paprika 2 teaspoonfuls of salt

Cover the gelatin with a cupful of cold water to soak for fifteen minutes.

Add all the seasoning to the tomatoes, bring to boiling point, add the gelatin, and strain. Turn into twelve small tomato molds and stand aside to harden. Serve with mayonnaise dressing as an accompaniment to boned chicken or turkey, or chicken pate, or alone, with mayonnaise, as a complete salad.

Chopped celery, a little cold cooked meat or nuts may be added, when the molds are to be served as a salad. With this addition, one half the recipe will serve twelve persons.

CRABS RAVIGOT

Purchase as many crab sh.e.l.ls as you have people to serve. To each six allow a pint of crab flakes. If you buy the crabs fresh, twelve crabs will serve six people. Squeeze over the flakes the juice of one lemon, add a half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of Tabasco. Fill the meat loosely into the sh.e.l.ls, place each sh.e.l.l on a pretty paper doily on a plate, and spread over a thick layer of mayonnaise dressing, with which you have mixed a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of tarragon leaves, a tablespoonful of chopped onion or shallot, and a tablespoonful of green chives.

CHICKEN SALAD

Cut cold boiled chicken into dice, add an equal quant.i.ty of tender celery, season with salt, pepper and lemon juice, mix with mayonnaise dressing, and serve on lettuce leaves.

A four pound chicken, and six heads of tender celery, three heads of lettuce, a half pint of whipped cream, and one pint of mayonnaise, will serve fifteen persons.

LOBSTER SALAD

Cut cold boiled lobster into cubes of an inch, mix with mayonnaise dressing and serve on lettuce leaves.

One three-pound lobster will serve six persons.

CRAB SALAD

Season crab flakes with salt, pepper and lemon juice, mix them with mayonnaise dressing, and serve on lettuce leaves, garnished with cress.

One pint of flakes will serve six persons.

TONGUE SALAD

Cut fresh-cooked beef's tongue or calf's tongue into dice. Have ready peeled perfectly round smooth tomatoes, take out the core and scoop out the seeds. Fill each tomato with the cubes of tongue, sprinkle over a teaspoonful of lemon juice and a little salt and pepper. Stand these on nests of lettuce leaves, put on top of each a large tablespoonful of mayonnaise. Dust thickly with paprika and serve one to each person.

LAMB SALAD

Cut cold boiled lamb into dice, mix with it half the quant.i.ty of freshly cooked green peas or canned peas. Add a half can of mushrooms, chopped fine, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Mix with mayonnaise dressing and serve on lettuce leaves, garnished with large sprigs of mint. Cap the top of the dish with a good sized sprig of fresh mint, and sprinkle capers all over the salad.

A nice plain lamb salad is made by mixing left-over cold lamb with mayonnaise; serve on lettuce leaves and garnish with chopped mint.

A quart will serve ten persons.

TOMATOES EN SURPRISE

This is one of the nicest of the salads for a simple card party. It takes the place of both vegetables and meat, and with brown bread and nut sandwiches as an accompaniment, is very attractive. Peel the tomatoes, cut off the stem end and scoop out the core and seeds. Fill the tomatoes with either crab flakes, chopped lobster, canned salmon, or sardines. Squeeze over a little lemon juice, and dust with salt and pepper. Turn them upside down on a nest of lettuce leaves, and cover the tomato with creamy mayonnaise.

SWEETBREAD SALAD

2 pairs of sweetbreads 4 ounces of almonds 4 ounces of pecan meats 2 ounces of sh.e.l.led Brazilian nuts 2 Spanish peppers 1/2 can of mushrooms 2 heads of celery 2 heads of lettuce 1 pint of mayonnaise 1 pint of cream 1 can of French peas

This is the most elaborate of all salads, is palatable and comparatively wholesome. Put the sweetbreads into boiling water, add a tablespoonful of vinegar, and simmer gently for one hour. When cold, remove the membrane and pick the sweetbreads apart. Put them in a bowl, cover them with an onion, sliced, and squeeze over the juice of a lemon; cover the bowl and stand it aside over night. Blanch and chop the almonds, and chop the pecans. Remove the onion from the sweetbreads, mix in the nuts, add the white portions of the celery, cut the size of the sweetbreads. Add the mushrooms, sliced, two teaspoonfuls of salt, a saltspoonful of white pepper and a saltspoonful of paprika. Add the cream, whipped, to the mayonnaise, and mix a portion of it with the sweetbreads and celery. Have a round shallow salad bowl lined with the lettuce leaves, turn in the centre the sweetbread salad and cover it over with the remaining quant.i.ty of mayonnaise. Put the peas in a ring around the base of the salad, and cap the top with the yolk of a hard-boiled egg. Cut the white of the egg into eighths and press them upside down around the yolk, forming a sort of a daisy. Cut the Spanish peppers into rings and arrange them just above the peas. Put here and there around the base, above the peas, ripe or green olives, and send to the table.

This will serve at supper or luncheon ten persons.

ROAST BEEF SALAD