Friday, December 04, 2015

Salads for Breakfast, Dinner, Supper.


Yesterday’s recipe source, Rice for Breakfast, Dinner, Supper (Chicago and New York, c1919) by Bessie R. Murphy was one of the “Three Meals a Day Series” by the same author. I have previously used the edition on Legumes, and I knew of others on Peanuts, Corn Meal, and Potatoes, but when I went searching, a new find that really intrigued me was Salads for Breakfast, Dinner, Supper (c.1920.)

I love salads. But not for breakfast. Perhaps this little book would change my opinion?
Unlike the others in the same series, the salad recipes are not arranged under the three meal headings, which seems to me to be a bit cowardly, and not at all helpful to my writing-needs today.

If I were to choose salad for breakfast, it would not, under any circumstances, be of the jellied variety. I just don’t ‘get’ jellied salads. In particular, I absolutely refuse to try jellied potato salad. Please tell me what appeals about the following extremely minimalist, and surely unspeakably awful dish.

Jellied Potato Salad.
1 quart cold boiled potatoes                       1 pint boiling water
1 package gelatin                                          salt and pepper.
Cut the potatoes into cubes, and season them to taste with salt and pepper. Coat molds or cups lightly with the gelatin, which has been dissolved in the boiling water. Put into the coated molds the potatoes, garnish with slices of pimentos, and pour over them enough of the gelatin to fill the molds. When the salad is firm, turn it out on lettuce leaves, and serve with dressing.

The dressing would need to pack quite a flavour punch to compensate for the apparent lack in the dish itself, I would think.  I would not choose the following recipe in this situation, but include it here because it is the first time I have ever come across a frozen dressing, which is noteworthy enough.

Frozen Mayonnaise Dressing.
Yolks of 2 eggs                      ¼ teaspoon pepper
2 ½ teaspoons salt               2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup olive oil                                    1 cup grated ripe tomato
Drop the yolks of eggs into a bowl, and add lemon juice, pepper and one-half the salt, micxing thoroughly. Add slowly half a cup of oil. No add the remainder of the salt and oil, mixing well. Add the grated tomato. Place mixture in ice-cream freezer, pack, and allow dressing to remain until it hardens. Serve over crisp lettuce leaves.


1 comment:

Cate said...

I will try it! ;)