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Salsify Salad
Boil the salsify till perfectly tender, drain it, and cut it into inch lengths. Put these on a dish, and pour over them any simple salad-dressing, or toss them up lightly with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and chopped ravigote. Garnish as fancy dictates. Time to boil the salsify, one hour.
A plain root salad that depends almost entirely on not overcooking the salsify and on dressing it while it is still warm.
- The hour is too longThe hour is long by modern practice -- salsify is usually tender in 20 to 35 minutes depending on thickness; test with a knife tip. Note that the recipe boils the roots whole and cuts them afterwards, which takes longer than pre-cut lengths; a full hour risks pieces too soft to hold an inch-length shape.
- Salsify itselfWhite salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius, the oyster plant) and black scorzonera (Scorzonera hispanica) are different plants but are cooked much the same way and commonly substituted for one another. Both appear in winter; roots sold as "oyster plant" are usually salsify.
- It blackens fastCut surfaces oxidise within minutes. Peel or scrape into water with lemon juice or a little vinegar, and boil in acidulated water, which also keeps the flesh pale.
- Dress it warmRoots absorb dressing while hot and take it poorly once cold. Drain, cut, and pour the oil and vinegar over immediately, then let it come to room temperature.
- RavigoteHere it means the fresh herb mixture, not the sauce: chervil, tarragon, chives and parsley in roughly equal parts. Chervil is the characteristic note; if unavailable, lean on tarragon and parsley rather than substituting dill.
- Dressing proportionsThe book leaves this open ("any simple salad-dressing"); a common proportion is about three parts oil to one of vinegar. A teaspoon of mustard helps it cling to the wet roots.
- YieldRoughly a pound of trimmed roots will give about four small side servings. The recipe leaves the garnish to fancy; hard-boiled egg, beetroot or a few capers are usual choices.
Salsify was a staple winter root in British and French kitchens through the nineteenth century, valued because it kept in sand through the cold months and because its faintly sweet, mildly marine flavour is generally said to have earned it the English name "oyster plant". Such recipes belong to a broader Victorian habit of serving cooked roots and stems cold under vinaigrette rather than confining salad to raw leaves; asparagus, French beans, cauliflower and beetroot all got the same treatment. The mention of ravigote reflects how thoroughly French terminology had settled into English cookery books, often used loosely, as here, where it means simply the herb mixture rather than the compound sauce of the same name. Salsify fell out of general use in the twentieth century as year-round vegetable supply removed the need for a root that stored well, and it is now more often found in restaurant kitchens than domestic ones.