BOUND THE TABLE

ordinary salad. The proportions of the other ingredients are a matter of taste, which cannot be defined.

Lastly, the proportion of the dressing to the salad must be such, that when the two have been thoroughly mixed together no dressing shall remain at the bottom of the bowl. This will never be the case when there is too much dressing in proportion to the salad, when the salad bag. not been properly freed from water, when too much vinegar has been put into the dressing, or when the in- gredients have not been properly and artistically mixed. Therefore will it always be an indication of failure.

It takes from forty to fifty minutes to mix a salad secundum artem ; and although it is better to eat it as soon as the dressing and the greenmeat have been “ worked” together, still it will keep good for an horn' or so ; after that it will rapidly deteriorate.

The following may be taken as the common form for mixing together the ingredients which compose a Salad Dressing :

Put the hard-boiled yolks of eggs into a bowl, and smash them with a wooden spoon ; add the mustard, pepper, and salt, and thoroughly mix them ; then proceed to put in the oil a little at a time, never adding more until you have so rubbed what is in the bowl that it presents an uniform texture. When you have put in all the oil, add any sauce (such as Worcester, &c.) which you may wish to use ; but be careful not to put in too much. Last of all, pour in the vinegar little by little, and keep on rather beating than stirring the mixture for about five minutes. At this stage of the proceedings you may taste the dressing, and make any alteration which you think necessary ; but it ought to require none. You now put in all the herbs, onions, &c., which you may wish to use as condiments, i.e., chopped up small ; mix them

thoroughly with the dressing, and then put in the salad proper, which yon mix or “ work,” as the Spanish pro- verb implies, like mad ; and, after ornamenting the top as I shall explain farther on, you can send your salad to table.

When raw yolks of egg are used, the modus operandi is as follows : Beat up the yolks slightly, and strain them through a small colander into a bowl ; put in the pepper and salt ; mix well, and pour in the oil very gradually, never ceasing to stir all the time. When you have used half the oil, have the vinegar ready in a cup, with the mustard, sauces, &c., mixed with it, and proceed to pour this in, in small quantities alternately with the rest of the oil, stirring vigorously to the end. Finish the operation as above.

A salad dressing, made with raw eggs, is in the nature of what is called a mayonnaise. In fact, the mayonnaise proper is nothing more than the above salad-dressing with a larger allowance of yolks of egg, which have the effect of making the sauce firmer; and it is used to serve up fowls, fish, and Crustacea with salad.

There are, however, many elaborate recipes for making a Mayonnaise, and this is one of them :

Pound in a mortar the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs, add to them a tablespoonful of aspic jelly or calvesJ-foot jelly just sufficiently warmed to make it liquid; strain this into a bowl; add two more tablespoonfuls of jelly and the same quantity of oil, some pepper, salt, mustard, and other condiments to taste ; mix thoroughly ; then add, a little at a time, rather more than one tablespoonful of very strong tarragon vinegar. Continue to stir until all the vinegar is incorporated. If the weather is hot, the bowl should be placed on ice until the sauce is wanted.

Raw yolks of egg may be used instead of hard-boiled