Lentil Salad

A cold pulse salad of the sort Cassell's files under vegetable cookery: the instructions assume you already have lentils cooked and a dressing made, so the work is in those two omissions.

• Which lentilSplit red Egyptian lentils were widely sold in Britain at this date, and they collapse to a puree that will not hold up in a salad. Whole brown, green or Puy lentils, boiled until just tender, 20-30 minutes, keep their shape.
• Cook them with seasoningThe recipe gives no salt at any stage, and does not say what the dressing contains. Lentils take up little seasoning once cold, so salt the cooking water and add a bay leaf or half an onion to the pot.
• Drain "with care"The instruction matters: surface water dilutes the dressing and makes the pile slump. Spread the drained lentils on a tray to steam dry before chilling.
• Cooked onionsThe recipe specifies cooked, so not raw; it does not say how. Boiled or steamed onion, cooled and chopped, suits the dish. Celery can be blanched briefly or left raw if you want the crunch.
• A fourth of their weightBy weight, not volume, and weighed after cooking. For 500 g of cooked lentils that is about 125 g of onion, celery or both.
• The beetrootCooked beetroot, chopped and arranged as a border rather than mixed in, so the colour does not bleed through the whole dish. Dress it separately or add it at the last moment.
• Salad dressingThe recipe assumes a dressing already made and does not say which. A boiled or mustard-thickened cream dressing and a plain vinaigrette both suit it; if you use vinaigrette, dress the lentils while barely warm so they take up the flavour, then chill.
• YieldThe recipe gives no quantities, so scale to suit; the quarter-weight ratio is the only proportion stated. It improves after an hour or two chilled, and is better not served fridge-cold.