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Salad Oil

The source of this oil is the olive (Olea europoea). The plant is cultivated extensively in France, Italy, and Spain. When the fruit is ripe it contains oil in great abundance. Between eleven and twelve thousand gallons of this oil are annually imported into this country, principally for consumption as a dressing in salads. It is much more largely used on the Continent, where it takes the place of butter. It is a very wholesome article, and it would be well if people in this country would cultivate a taste for its use, especially in making salads. "In this country," says a well-known authority, "these very valuable adjuncts to our food are rendered exceedingly disagreeable; first, by the want of drying the plant used; and in the next by its being deluged with vinegar. A salad properly prepared should have the leaves of the plant used dried to such an extent that they will readily absorb the dressing poured over them, which should consist of two-thirds or three-fourths olive oil. I need not also add that the oil should not be rancid; but such is the thorough carelessness with which these articles are put on our tables, that in nine cases out of ten the oil is rancid and unfit for use. This, perhaps, accounts for the flood of vinegar to drown its flavour."