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November Salad
Arrange thin slices of crisp Spanish onion in nests of bleached chicory leaves. Pile on onion Jonathan apples pared and cut in one-half inch cubes, celery hearts cut in small pieces and fresh English walnut meats cut in quarters. There should be an equal quantity of apples and celery, and one cup of nut meats to two cups each of the others. Moisten with Mayonnaise, sprinkle each portion with finely chopped green pepper.
A composed salad rather than a tossed one, and it holds up well — the only real work is in the cutting and in keeping the apple from browning. A few of the ingredient names have drifted since 1913.
- Bleached chicoryMost likely the pale, tight, torpedo-shaped head sold today as Belgian endive or witloof chicory, grown in the dark to keep it white and mild. (Period books sometimes also used "bleached" of curly chicory blanched in the garden, but the whole cupped leaves needed for a "nest" point to witloof.) Separate the leaves whole and arrange them cupped side up.
- Spanish onionA large, mild, straw-skinned sweet onion. Slice it paper-thin on a mandoline; at 1900s knife thickness it will dominate. A brief soak in ice water takes off any harshness.
- Jonathan applesA tart, crisp, thin-skinned red apple that is still grown but not always easy to find. Braeburn, Empire or Cortland are close substitutes. Avoid anything mealy or purely sweet — the acid is doing structural work against the mayonnaise.
- Keeping the apple whiteHalf-inch cubes of pared apple brown within minutes. Cut them last, or toss them in lemon juice and drain before dressing.
- English walnutsSimply the common walnut, so named in older American books to distinguish it from the native black walnut, which is far stronger and would overwhelm this. Toast them lightly if you like, though the original clearly intends them raw and fresh.
- Proportions and yieldTwo cups apple, two cups celery, one cup walnuts — about five cups of filling, which should serve roughly six to eight depending on how generously you plate it. The recipe gives no quantity of dressing; add it sparingly, as the salad should be moistened, not bound.
- The mayonnaiseThe book assumes a made-to-order egg mayonnaise. If you make your own, use pasteurized eggs when serving it to children, the elderly or anyone pregnant, or thin a good commercial mayonnaise with lemon juice and a little cream.
- Assemble at the tableChicory leaves wilt and weep once dressed. Cut everything ahead, chill the components separately, and build the nests no more than a few minutes before serving.
This is a Waldorf salad with ambitions. The apple-celery-mayonnaise combination had been in American cookbooks since the 1890s, generally traced to the Waldorf Hotel in New York, with walnuts added to the standard formula later, and by the 1910s it was common enough that a book like 52 Sunday Dinners hrough week of the year — would want to dress it up rather than repeat it plainly. Hence the chicory nests, the raw onion and the confetti of green pepper, all of which push a familiar dish toward the composed, individually plated salad. The choice of ingredients is also seasonally honest: November is when the apple crop is in, celery has been blanched and lifted, and walnuts have been cured.