Remembering the Past Australia
Salad and Salad Dressing Recipe (1894)
First published in the “Women’s Column” of the Freeman’s Journal (Sydney), 18th August 1894.
For the Salad
- Three lettuces
- Two handfuls of mustard and cress
- Ten young radishes
- Cucumber - sliced
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Beetroot
Salad Dressing
- One teaspoon of mixed mustard
- 1 teaspoon of pounded sugar
- 2 tablespoons of salad oil
- 4 tablespoons of milk
- 2 tablespoons of vinegar
- Cayenne
- Salt to taste
Salad
- Take three lettuces, two handfuls of mustard and cress, ten young radishes, a few slices of cucumbers. Wash carefully, removing any worm-eaten leaves, and drain thoroughly by swinging them gently in a clean cloth.
- With a silver knife cut the lettuces into small pieces, and the radishes and cucumbers into thin slices. Arrange all these ingredients lightly on a dish with the mustard and cress, and pour under, not over, the salad dressing; do not stir it up until it is to be eaten.
- It should be garnished with hardboiled eggs cut in slices, beetroot, or sliced cucumbers, or anything else in that line that taste may suggest.
- Care must be taken to have the herbs freshly gathered and thoroughly drained before the sauce is added, or it will be thin and watery. Young spring onions cut very small are used by some, but this is a matter of taste.
Salad Dressing
For the salad dressing the following is good and reliable:—
- Put the mixed mustard into a bowl with the sugar, and add the oil drop by drop, carefully stirring and mixing all these ingredients well together.
- Proceed in this manner with the milk and vinegar, which must be added very gradually or the sauce will curdle.
- Put in the seasoning, when the mixture will be ready for use. If this dressing is properly made it will have a soft creamy appearance. In mixing, the ingredients cannot be added too gradually or stirred too much.
