Monday, July 11, 2005

500 Delicious Salad Recipes

from the Culinary Arts Institute: one of America’s foremost organizations devoted to the science of Better Cookery, 1949*

I love a good salad: fresh greens from the garden, toasted pine nuts, dried cranberries, feta and a freshly made vinaigrette with some shredded basil. That’s good stuff. Now you KNOW that recipe isn’t in this book, don’t you? Enough of my babble. Let’s get to the goodness…
Salad cover
From the introduction….”…molded salads whose beauty and lusciousness are bringing them rapidly into favor.” I don’t know if this is a picture of a molded salad. I don’t know if this is a picture of a salad, actually…

Salad intro

This book was once owned by Rae Woodcock.
Rae Woodcock

There’s such a plethora to choose from: appetizer salads, fruit salads, salad bowls, tossed salads, vegetable salads, molded salads, salad plates, chicken salads, fish and meat salads, frozen salads, holiday salads, salad garnishes and salad dressings. If this was my salad book I’d add a category for Elaine from Seinfeld: Big Salad. Let’s peruse and pick one from several categories, shall we?

Appetizer Salads…Artichoke and Crab-meat Salad uses 1 cup diced cooked artichoke, 1 cup crab meat, 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped, 1 cup Mayonnaise, 1/2 cup tomato catchup and 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce. Ya’ll let me know if you want me to send you the directions for what to do with those ingredients.

Fruit Salads…it’s a toss-up between Banana Salmon Salad (with pickle! And of course, Mayonnaise) and Coronation Salad. Coronation salad calls for Whipped Cream Mayonnaise (?) and Red Bar-le-Duc. No clue. Main item is pears. Fresh. (not canned!)

Fruit Salad in Ice Bowls…Ice Bowls: Freeze water, colored pale green, in bowl shaped mold. When sufficient ice is formed for all, break through thin ice layer in center and pour out the water. Freeze water in enamel bowl, covered and packed in ice and salt. When frozen 1 inch thick press down small bowl until water runs out. When freezing process starts again remove smaller bowl. To unmold dip bowl into hot water. Repeat process for individual bowls, coloring each in different pastel shade. Holy crap. That’s process. See ya in a week.

Tossed Salads…Picnic Salad Bowl: 1 No. 2 can asparagus tips, Mustard French Dressing, 3 hard-cooked eggs, 1/3 cup deviled ham, hearts of lettuce, 2 strips pimiento, 6 wedges Swiss Cheese. Deviled ham!

Recipe break: take in the full color beauty of the cover and back….
Salad cover

Molded Salads…so many to choose from including Chicken in Aspic, Chicken and Olive Loaf and Jellied Salmon Mold. At least Sparkling Fruit Mold doesn’t have Mayonnaise…”A shimmering mold of jellied fruit salad will tempt the most languid summer appetite.”
Salad inside-molded salads
We’re going to skip right by the Tongue and Cabbage Salad. And yes, it does have Mayonnaise.

Holiday Salads…includes the Drum Major Salad (lots of olives) and Washington’s Salad: Cover a 4-inch straight section of banana with mayonnaise. Roll in chopped nut meats and place on bed of lettuce. Garnish with cherries and a hatchet fastened in a slit in the “log.” Damn. I missed the Independence Day Salmon Ring.

Okay peeps. There’s the goods. Bon appetit.

*I’ve actually been to the Culinary Arts Institute in Chicago. It still exists, and is a great facility for focus group testing.

1 comment:

Rozanne said...

Banana and salmon. Yucko!

Those ice mold recipes sound like recipes all right--recipes for disaster!

What do olives have to do with drum majors? Cray-zee!