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Daisy Salad
Arrange around border of salad plates a row of crispy lettuce leaves, and in the center put a tablespoon of dressing. This makes center of daisy. Around this put petals made by cutting into narrow strips whites of hard-cooked eggs. Take yolks of these eggs and put through strainer, scattering over dressing in center to give a rough appearance. This will require about five hard-cooked eggs.
The dressing for the center is made as follows: Beat together 3 eggs, add to them 1 cup milk, 2 tablespoons vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons Crisco, 2 teaspoons mustard mixed to paste with 2 teaspoons water, and pepper to taste. Bring to boiling point.
A composed salad plate with a cooked ("boiled") dressing standing in for mayonnaise. The dressing is the only part that needs real attention.
- The hinge: do not actually boil it"Bring to boiling point" means heat it until it thickens and just begins to steam and bubble at the edge, around 175-180F, stirring constantly. Three whole eggs in a cup of milk will curdle into scrambled egg if it reaches a rolling boil. A double boiler or very low direct heat with a whisk is the safe route.
- CriscoThe book was written to sell it. Any neutral solid shortening works, and butter is better tasting; add it off the heat at the end so it emulsifies into the warm custard rather than frying anything.
- MustardTwo teaspoons of dry mustard powder slaked with two teaspoons water, as the recipe's own wording implies; dry mustard was a common pantry staple at the time, though prepared mustards were also on sale. Prepared Dijon or yellow mustard can substitute at roughly a tablespoon, but it also brings its own vinegar and salt, so taste before adding all the vinegar.
- Cool the dressing before assemblingThe recipe never says so. Warm dressing wilts the lettuce and slumps the egg-white petals. Chill it fully; it thickens further as it cools, and a whisk will smooth out any skin.
- Hard-cooked eggs that slice cleanlyFive eggs, cooked so the yolks are set but not chalky, then cooled in cold water. Cut the whites into strips with a thin, wet knife; a dry blade tears them. Yolks pushed through a fine sieve give the fluffy "rough appearance" the recipe wants.
- YieldThe dressing makes close to two cups, well more than five eggs' worth of petals need. It keeps a few days covered in the refrigerator and is good on cold chicken or potato salad.
- ServingFive eggs will build four to six daisies, depending on plate size. Assemble immediately before serving; the whites weep and the sieved yolk goes pasty if it sits.
This comes from a Procter & Gamble promotional cookbook, one of a wave of branded volumes issued to teach American cooks to use Crisco, the hydrogenated vegetable shortening introduced in 1911, in places where they had always used butter or lard. That commercial purpose explains the two tablespoons of Crisco in a salad dressing, a place where shortening would otherwise be unexpected. The dressing itself is a plain cooked or "boiled" dressing, often described as the standard American alternative to mayonnaise, and the eggs here are doing double duty as thickener and garnish. The flower arrangement belongs to a fashion of the period for salads shaped into pictures, daisies, water lilies, birds' nests.