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German Salad
Take any kind of cold boiled vegetable, such as cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, sea-kale, or a little of three or four kinds. Cut them into small pieces, and, if the flavour is liked, add chopped onion, or chopped raw apple. Season with pepper and salt, and add two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, and four of oil, to every two pounds of vegetables. Serve in a salad-bowl, and garnish with sliced beetroot and parsley. Time, a quarter of an hour to prepare.
A frugal Victorian use for leftover boiled vegetables, and it still works — the only real decision is when to dress it.
- Dress while barely warmCold cooked potatoes and cabbage absorb almost nothing; the same vegetables at room temperature or slightly above drink up the vinegar and oil. If you are cooking the vegetables specially, dress them as soon as they stop steaming, then let the salad sit an hour.
- The dressing ratioTwo tablespoons vinegar to four of oil per 2 lb of vegetables is 6 tablespoons of dressing in all for a large bowl — deliberately lean by modern standards. Taste and add more oil and a little mustard if the mixture seems dry.
- Oil"Oil" in a book of this date means salad oil, effectively olive oil. A mild olive or a neutral oil both suit; strong peppery oil fights the boiled cabbage.
- VinegarMalt or white wine vinegar is closest to what was meant. Cider vinegar is good if you are using the chopped apple.
- Sea-kaleSea-kale is rarely sold now. Blanched chard stems, or the white parts of leeks, give the same mild stalky texture.
- Beetroot garnishAdd the sliced beetroot at the last moment and lay it round the edge rather than stirring it in, or the whole bowl turns pink within minutes.
- OnionRaw chopped onion in a salad that stands will dominate everything else. A shallot, or onion rinsed in cold water and drained, keeps the flavour without the heat.
- YieldTwo pounds of prepared vegetables serves six to eight as a side dish. Salt generously — boiled potatoes and cauliflower need more than they look like they do.
Cold cooked vegetables dressed with oil and vinegar appear under the name "German salad" in English cookery books of the later nineteenth century, the name pointing loosely at the Central European habit of dressing potatoes, beetroot and cabbage rather than serving them plain and hot. The recipe sits among the general principles of salad-making, and its function is plain enough: it is a leftovers recipe, written for a household that boiled vegetables in quantity for the midday dinner and needed something to do with the remainder at supper. The chopped raw apple, offered here as an option, chimes with the German connection — apple with cabbage or potato is common there. The dish is a distant relative of the mayonnaise-bound Russian salad of later English kitchens, and nearer to the German Kartoffelsalat made without mayonnaise.