Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery by A. G. Payne

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POTATO OMELET, SWEET.--Proceed exactly as above, only instead of adding
pepper and salt mix in a brimming tablespoonful of finely powdered sugar,
the juice of a lemon, with half a grated nutmeg.

CHEESE SOUFFLE.--To make a small cheese souffle in a round cake-tin,
proceed as follows:--Make the tin very hot in the oven. Put in about an
ounce of butter, so as to make the tin oily in every part inside. The tin
must be tilted so that the butter pours round the sides of the tin as well
as the bottom. Take two eggs, separate the yolks from the whites, and beat
the whites to a stiff froth; beat up the two yolks very thoroughly with a
quarter of a pint of milk. Add to this two tablespoonfuls of grated
Parmesan cheese; add this mixture to the beaten-up whites, and mix the
whole carefully together. Now pour this mixture into the hot buttered tin,
which should be five or six inches deep, and bake it in the oven. The
mixture will rise to five or six times its original depth. As soon as it
is done, run with the souffle from the oven door to the dining-room door.
However quick you may be, the souffle will probably sink an inch on the
way. Some cooks wrap hot flannel on the outside of the tin to keep up the
heat. If you have a folded dinner napkin round the tin for appearance
sake, as is usually the case, fold the napkin before you make the souffle,
and make the napkin sufficiently big round that it can be dropped over the
tin in an instant. The napkin should be pinned, and be quite half an inch
in diameter bigger than the width of the tin. This is to save time. Delay
in serving the souffle is fatal.

OMELET SOUFFLE, SWEET.--In making an omelet souffle, sweet, you can proceed
in exactly the same manner as making a cheese souffle, with the exception
that you add two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar instead of two
tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. The omelet will, however, require
flavouring of some kind, the two most delicate being vanilla and
orange-flower water. You can flavour it with lemon by rubbing a few lumps
of sugar on the outside of a lemon, and then pounding this with the
powdered sugar. It must be pounded very thoroughly and mixed very
carefully, or else one part of the omelet will taste stronger of lemon than
the other. Some powdered sugar should be shaken over the top of the
souffle just before serving.

OMELET SOUFFLE (ANOTHER WAY).--When a souffle is made on a larger scale,
and served up on a flat dish, it is best to proceed as follows:--Take six
ounces of powdered sugar, and mix them with six yolks of eggs and a
dessertspoonful of flour and a pinch of salt. To this must be added
whatever flavouring is used, such as vanilla. This is all mixed together
till it is perfectly smooth. Next beat the six whites to a very stiff
froth; mix this in with the batter lightly, put two ounces of butter into
an omelet-pan, and as soon as the butter begins to frizzle pour in the
mixture. As it begins to set round the edges, turn it over and heap it up
in the middle, and then slide the omelet off on to a plated-edged baking
dish, which must be well buttered. Put it in the oven for about a quarter
of an hour, to let it rise, shake some powdered sugar over the top, and
serve very quickly.

OMELET, SWEET.--Make an ordinary plain omelet with six eggs and either two
or four ounces of butter, as directed for making omelet, plain. Instead of
adding pepper and salt to the beaten-up eggs, add one or two tablespoonfuls
of finely powdered sugar. At the last moment, sprinkle a little powdered
sugar over the omelet, and just glaze the sugar with a red-hot salamander.

OMELET WITH JAM.--Make a plain sweet omelet as directed above, adding
rather less sugar--about half. If you make the omelet with two ounces of
butter, and turn it over, put a couple of tablespoonfuls of jam on the
omelet, and turn the half over the jam. It is best to put the jam in the
oven for a minute or two to take the chill off.

If you make the omelet with four ounces of butter, you must put the jam by
the side of the omelet and let the thin part of the omelet cover it. Of
course, the question what jam is best for sweet omelet is purely a matter
of taste. Most good judges consider that apricot jam is the best, and if
the sweet omelet itself be flavoured with a little essence of vanilla, the
result is generally considered one of the nicest sweets that can be sent to
table. Strawberry jam, especially if some of the strawberries are whole,
is also very nice. The objection to raspberry jam is the pips.

A most delicious omelet can be made by chopping up some preserved slices of
pine-apple, and placing this in the omelet, and making the pine-apple syrup
hot and pouring it round the base. Red-currant jelly, black-currant jam,
and plum jam can all be used. One of the cheapest and, in the opinion of
many, the best sweet omelets can be made with six eggs, two ounces of
butter, and three or four tablespoonfuls of orange marmalade. In this case
it will cost no more to rub a few lumps of sugar on the outside of an
orange, and pound these with the powdered sugar you use to sweeten the
omelet. If the marmalade is liquid, as it often is, one or two
tablespoonfuls of the juice can be poured round the edge of the omelet.

OMELET AU RHUM.--As a rule, spirits are not allowed in vegetarian cookery.
An omelet au rhum is simply a sweet omelet, plain, with plenty of powdered
sugar sprinkled over the top, with some rum ignited poured over it just
before it is sent to table. The way to ignite the rum is to fill a large
spoon, like a gravy-spoon, and hold a lighted wooden taper (not wax; it
tastes) underneath the spoon till the rum lights. The dish should be hot.
It may be a consolation to teetotallers to reflect that the fact of burning
the rum causes all the alcohol to evaporate, and there is nothing left but
the flavour.

OMELET AU KIRSCH.--Proceed as above, substituting Kirschenwasser for Rum.

OMELET, VEGETABLE.--A plain omelet can also be served with any puree of
vegetables, so that we can have--Asparagus Omelet, Artichoke Omelet, French
Bean Omelet, Celery Omelet, Spinach Omelet, Mushroom Omelet, Tomato Omelet,
&c.

CHAPTER V.

SALADS AND SANDWICHES.

SALADS AND SANDWICHES.--Probably the most patriotic Englishman will admit
that, on the subject of salads, we can learn something from the French.
During the last half-century a great improvement has taken place on this
point in this country. Many years ago it was the fashion to dress an
English lettuce, resembling in shape an old umbrella, with a mixture of
brown sugar, milk, mustard, and even anchovy and Worcester sauce, and then
add a few drops of oil, as if it were some dangerous poison, like prussic
acid, not to be tampered with lightly. The old-fashioned lettuces were so
hard and crisp that it was difficult to chew them without making a noise
somewhat similar to walking on a shingly beach. In modern days, however,
we have arrived at a stage of civilisation in which, as a rule, we use soft
French lettuces instead of the hard gingham-shaped vegetables which somehow
or other our grandfathers ate for supper with a whole lobster, seasoned
with about half a pint of vinegar, and then slept none the worse for the
performance. The first point for consideration, if we wish to have a good
salad, is to have the lettuces crisp and dry. Old-fashioned French
cookery-books direct that the lettuce should never be washed. The stalks
should be cut off, the outside leaves removed and thrown away, and the
lettuce itself should then be pulled in pieces with the fingers, and each
piece wiped with a clean cloth. This is not always practicable, but the
principle remains the same. You can wash the lettuce leaves without
bruising them. You can dry them by shaking them up lightly in a large
clean cloth, and you can spread them out and let them get _dry_ an hour or
two before they are dressed.

Another important point to be borne in mind is that a salad should never be
dressed till just before it is wanted to be eaten. If by chance you put by
the remains of a dressed salad, it is good for nothing the next morning.
Finally, the oil must be pure olive oil of the best quality, and to ensure
this it should bear the name of some well-known firm. A good deal of the
oil sold simply as salad oil, bearing no name, is adulterated, sometimes
with cotton-seed oil.

SALAD, FRENCH LETTUCE, PLAIN.--Clean one or more French lettuces (throw
away all the leaves that are decayed or bruised), place these in a
salad-bowl, and, supposing we have sufficient for two persons, dress the
salad as follows:--Put a saltspoonful of salt and half a saltspoonful of
pepper into a tablespoon. Fill the tablespoon up with oil, stir the pepper
and salt up with a fork, and pour it over the lettuce. Now add another
tablespoonful of oil, and then toss the lettuce leaves lightly together
with a spoon and fork. Allow one tablespoonful of oil to each person.
This salad would suffice for two. Be sure and mix the lettuce and oil well
together before you add any vinegar. The reason of this is that if you add
the vinegar first it would soak into the lettuce leaves, making one part
more acid than another. Having well mixed up the lettuce and oil, add half
a tablespoonful of vinegar. Mix it once more, and the salad is dressed.

In France they always add to the lettuce, before it is dressed, two or
three finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves. Dried tarragon can be used,
but it is not equal to fresh. If you have no tarragon it is a great
improvement to use tarragon vinegar instead of ordinary vinegar. Tarragon
vinegar is sold by all grocers at sixpence per bottle.

It is also often customary to rub the salad-bowl with a bead of garlic, or
rub a piece of crust of bread with garlic, and toss this piece of crust up
with the salad after it has been dressed. Garlic should never be chopped
up, but only used as stated above.

A good French salad is also always decorated with one or more hard-boiled
eggs, cut into quarters, longways. These are placed on the top of the
lettuce.

SALAD, ENGLISH, LETTUCE.--The ordinary English salad is made either with
French or English lettuces, and is generally dressed as follows:--One or
two tablespoonfuls of cream or milk, a teaspoonful of made mustard, two
tablespoonfuls of vinegar, pepper, and salt. There are many people still
living in remote parts of the country who prefer this style of dressing.

SALAD, ENGLISH, MIXED.--The old-fashioned English _mixed_ salad generally
consisted of English lettuce cut up into strips crossways, to which was
added mustard and cress, boiled beetroot, chopped celery, spring onions,
radishes, and watercress. It is by no means a bad mixture when dressed
with oil, and, of course, it can be dressed it a l'Anglaise. It makes an
excellent accompaniment to a huge hunk of cheese, a crusty loaf, a good
appetite, and a better digestion.

SALAD, MAYONNAISE.--This is generally considered the king of salads, and it
can be made an exceedingly pretty-looking dish, Take two or more French
lettuces, clean and dry them as directed above, and take the small heart of
one lettuce about the size of a small walnut, uncut from the stalk, so that
you can stand it upright in the middle of the salad, raised above the
surface. Arrange all the softer parts of the leaves on the top of the
salad so as to make as much as possible a smooth surface. Make some
Mayonnaise sauce, thick enough to be spread like butter, and mask this
little mound and all the surface of the middle of the salad round it with a
thin layer of the sauce, so that it looks like the top of a mould of solid
custard. Ornament the edge of the salad with hard-boiled eggs cut in
quarters, and place between the quarters slices of pickled gherkins and
stoned olives. Take a small teaspoonful of French capers, dry them on a
cloth, and sprinkle a few of them about an inch apart on the white surface.
Next chop up, very finely, about half a teaspoonful of parsley, and see
that this doesn't stick together in lumps. Place this on the end of a
knife and flip the knife so that the little green specks of parsley fall on
the white surface. Next take about half a saltspoonful of finely crumbled
bread, and shake these in a saucer with one or two drops of cochineal.
This will colour them a bright red, and they will have all the appearance
of lobster-coral. Place these red bread-crumbs on the end of a knife and
let them fall over the white surface like the parsley. The little red and
green specks on the white background make the dish look exceedingly pretty.
Before mixing the salad all together add a tablespoonful of tarragon
vinegar or lemon-juice.

TOMATO SALAD.--For making tomato salad you require red, ripe tomatoes; the
smoother they are the better, but the chief points are--very ripe and very
red. Never use those pink, crinkly tomatoes which look something like milk
stained with plum juice. If tomatoes are picked unripe, and then allowed
to ripen afterwards, they become rotten and worthless. Slice up half a
dozen or more tomatoes--sometimes it will be necessary to remove the core
and pips, sometimes not; add a little oil, a little vinegar, and some
pepper and salt. Tomato salad is one of the few that are very nice without
any oil at all. Of course, this is a matter of taste. Some persons slice
up a few onions and add to the tomatoes. In addition to this you can add
some slices of cold potatoes. In this latter case, heap the potatoes up in
the middle of the dish in the shape of a dome sprinkle some chopped parsley
over the potatoes, put a border of sliced onion round the base, and then a
border of sliced tomato outside that. This makes the dish look pretty.

Many persons rub the dish or salad-bowl with a bead of garlic. This is
quite sufficient to flavour the salad; but never _chop_ garlic for salads.

EGG SALAD.--Egg salad consists of an ordinary salad made with French
lettuces, with an extra quantity of hard-boiled eggs. If you want to make
the salad look very pretty on the top, cut up the lettuces and dress them
with oil and vinegar in the ordinary way. Make the tops of the lettuces
(which should be placed in a round salad-bowl) as smooth as you can without
pressing them down unnecessarily. Now take six hard-boiled eggs, separate
the yolks from the whites, powder the yolks, and chop up the whites small.
Sprinkle a ring of yellow round the edge of the salad-bowl, say an inch in
width, then put a ring of white round, and place the remainder of yolk in
the middle, almost up to the centre. Have the centre about two inches in
diameter. We now have a yellow centre surrounded by a broad white rim (as,
of course, there is more white than yellow), and an outside yellow ring,
which meets the white china bowl. Reserve about a teaspoonful of pieces of
finely chopped white, and put them in a saucer, with a few drops of
cochineal, and shake them. This turns them a bright red. Sprinkle these
red specks _very sparingly_ on the white, and take about half a teaspoonful
of chopped blanched parsley, and sprinkle these green specks on the yellow.
This makes the dish look pretty.

GERMAN SALAD.--German salad is made from cold boiled vegetables chopped up.
In Germany, it is made, according to English ideas, from every vegetable
you have ever heard of, mixed with a number of vegetables you have never
heard of. In England it can be made by chopping up boiled carrot, turnip,
cabbage, cauliflower, potato, French beans, Brussels sprouts (whole),
celery, raw onion, raw apple, &c. In fact, in making this vegetable salad
the motto should be "the more the merrier." In addition to this you will
find that they add what is known as _sauer kraut_. This latter is not
adapted, as a rule, to English palates. The salad is mixed with oil and
vinegar in the ordinary way, the Germans adding much more vinegar than we
should care for in this country. The salad is decorated at the finish with
boiled beet-root. It is very pretty to cut the beet-root into triangles,
the base of the triangle touching the edge of the salad-bowl, the point of
the triangle pointing inwards. Gut a star out of a good slice of
beet-root, and place it in the centre of the bowl; sprinkle a little
chopped blanched parsley over the surface of the mixed vegetables.

ENDIVE SALAD.--Endives come into season long before lettuces, and are much
used abroad for making salads. The drawback to endive is that it is tough,
and the simple remedy is to boil it. Take three or four white-heart
endives, throw them into boiling water slightly salted. When they get
tender take them out and instantly throw them into cold water, by which
means you preserve their colour. When quite cold, take them out again,
drain them, dry them thoroughly, and pull them to pieces with the fingers.
Now place them in a salad-bowl, keeping the whitest part as much as
possible at the top. Place some hard-boiled eggs round the edge, and
sprinkle a little chopped blanched parsley over the white endive. You can,
if you like, put a few spikes of red beet-root between the quarters of
eggs.

It is a great improvement to rub the salad-bowl with a bead of garlic, or
you can rub a crust of bread with a bead of garlic, and toss this lightly
about in the salad when you mix it.

SALSIFY SALAD.--Boiled salsify makes a very delicious salad. Take some
white salsify, scrape it, and instantly throw it into vinegar and water, by
which means you will keep it a pure white. Then, when you have all ready,
throw it into boiling water, slightly salted, boil it till it is tender,
throw it into cold water, and when cold take it out, drain it and dry it,
cut it up into small half-inch pieces (or put it in whole, in sticks, into
a salad-bowl), sprinkle a little chopped blanched parsley over the top,
dress in the ordinary way with oil and white French vinegar, and be sure to
use white pepper, not black, if white wine vinegar is objected to, the
juice of a hard fresh lemon is equally good, if not better.

POTATO SALAD.--Potato salad is generally made from the remains of cold
boiled potatoes. Of course, potatoes can be boiled on purpose, in which
case they should be allowed to get cold in the water in which they were
boiled. New potatoes are far better for the purpose than old. Cut the
potatoes into slices, and place them in a salad-bowl with a little finely
chopped blanched parsley. You can also add some finely chopped onion or
shallot. If you do not add these you can rub the bowl with a bead of
garlic. Sprinkle some more chopped parsley over the top of the salad and
ornament the edge of the bowl with some thin slices of pickled gherkins. A
few stoned olives can also be added. Dress the salad with oil and vinegar
in the ordinary way.

ASPARAGUS SALAD.--Cold asparagus makes a most delicious salad. It is
needless, perhaps, to say it is made from cold boiled asparagus. The best
dressing for asparagus salad is somewhat peculiar, and is made as
follows:--Take, say, an ounce of butter, put it in a saucer, and melt it in
the oven till it is like oil. Now mix in a teaspoonful of made mustard,
some pepper, salt, and a dessertspoonful of vinegar. Stir it all together,
and as it gets cold it will begin to get thick. Dip all the green part of
the asparagus in this, and lay the heads gently, without breaking them, in
a vegetable dish, with the white stalk resting on the edge of the dish, and
the green part in the middle. Let the salad get perfectly cold, and then
serve. Of course, the sauce clings to the asparagus. The asparagus is
eaten with the fingers like hot asparagus--a custom now generally
recognised.

ARTICHOKE SALAD.--This applies to French artichokes, not Jerusalem. In
France, artichokes are often served raw for breakfast, on a plate, with a
little heap of chopped raw onion and another heap of chopped capers or
parsley. The Frenchman mixes a little oil or vinegar on his plate, adding
the onion, &c., according to his taste. The leaves are pulled off one by
one, the white stalk part dipped in this dressing, and then eaten, by being
drawn through the teeth. The artichoke bottom is reserved for the finish
as a _bon bouche_, something like a schoolboy who will eat all the pastry
round a jam tart, leaving the centre for the _finale_.

BEET-ROOT SALAD.--In boiling beet-roots be careful not to break them, or
else they will bleed and lose their colour. When the beet-root is boiled
and cold, peel it, and cut it into thin slices. It can be dressed with oil
and vinegar, or vinegar only, adding pepper and salt. Some persons dress
beet-root with a salad-dressing in which cream is used instead of oil; but
never use cream _and_ oil. To mix cream and oil is like mixing bacon with
butter.

CUCUMBER SALAD.--Peel a cucumber and cut it into slices as thin as
possible. We might almost add, thinner if possible. Mix it with a little
salt, and let it stand, tossing the cucumber about every now and then. By
this means you extract all the water from the cucumber. Drain off this
water, and add plenty of oil to the cucumber, and then mix it so that every
slice comes in contact with the oil. Now add a little pepper, and a very
little vinegar, and mix it thoroughly. If you add vinegar to cucumber
before the oil some of the slices will taste like sour pickle, as the
vinegar soaks into the cucumber. Cucumber should be always served very
cold, and is best placed in an ice-chest for an hour before serving. Some
people put a piece of ice on the top of the cucumber.

FRENCH BEAN SALAD.--Cold boiled French beans make a very nice salad. A
little chopped parsley should be mixed with them, and the salad-bowl can be
rubbed with a bead of garlic. Some people soak the beans in vinegar first,
and then add oil. This would suit a German palate. A better plan is to
add the oil first, with pepper and salt, mix all well together, and then
add the vinegar.

BEAN SALAD.--Cold boiled broad beans make a very nice salad. Rub off the
skins so that only the green part is put in the salad-bowl. Rub the bowl
with garlic, add a little chopped parsley, then oil, pepper and salt, mix
well, and add vinegar last of all.

HARICOT BEAN SALAD.--This can be made from cold, boiled, dried white
haricot beans. Add plenty of chopped parsley, rub the bowl with garlic,
mix oil, pepper and salt first, vinegar afterwards.

* * * * *

The nicest haricot bean salad is made from the fresh green beans met with
abroad. They can be obtained in this country in tins, and a delicious
salad can be had at a moment's notice by opening a tin, straining off the
liquor, and drying the little green beans, which are very soft and tender,
and dressing them with oil and vinegar, in the ordinary way. A little
chopped parsley, or garlic flavouring by rubbing the bowl, can be added or
not, according to taste.

CELERY AND BEET-ROOT SALAD.--A mixture of celery and beet-root makes a very
nice winter salad. The beet-root, of course, is boiled, and the celery
generally sliced up thin in a raw state. It is a great improvement to boil
the celery till it is _nearly_ tender. By this means you improve the
salad, and the celery assists in making vegetarian stock.

WATER-CRESS.--Water-cress is sometimes mixed with other salad, but when
eaten alone requires no dressing, but only a little salt.

DANDELION LEAF SALAD.--Considering that the root of the dandelion is so
largely used in medicine for making taraxacum, it is to be regretted that
the leaves of the plant are not utilised in this country as they are abroad
for making salad. These leaves can be obtained in London at a few shops in
the French colony of Soho. The leaves are washed, dried, placed in a
salad-bowl, and dressed with oil and vinegar in the ordinary way.

CAULIFLOWER SALAD.--The remains of a cold boiled cauliflower makes a very
good salad if only the white part be used. It can be mixed with remains of
cold potatoes, some chopped blanched parsley should be sprinkled over the
top, and it can be dressed with oil and vinegar in the ordinary way; or it
can be served up with a sauce made from oiled butter similar to that
described for dressing cold asparagus.

MUSTARD AND CRESS.--This is somewhat similar to watercress. When served
alone it is generally dipped in salt and eaten with bread-and-butter, but
it is very useful to mix with other kinds of salad.

HOP SALAD.--In Germany a very nice salad is made from young hops, which are
grown very extensively in America and Germany, as English brewers are well
aware. The hops are picked when quite young, before they get leafy; they
are then boiled till nearly tender. They can be dressed in the English
fashion with oil and vinegar, or in the German fashion with vinegar and
sugar.

ONION SALAD.--Few people are aware of what an excellent salad can be made
from the remains of cold boiled Spanish onions. Spanish onions can
generally be bought at a penny a pound. They are mild in flavour, very
wholesome, and contain a great deal of nourishment. Take a couple of cold
boiled Spanish onions, pull them into leaves after they are quite dry, and
dress them with a very little oil and vinegar.

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