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Summer Vegetable Salad
Take half a pound of raw artichoke bottoms, half a pound of fresh cucumber, and the heart of a firm fresh lettuce. Divide into thin slices (the cucumber having of course been peeled before it was cut), and sprinkle a little salt over the vegetables. Cover the dish, and let it remain untouched for two hours. Drain off the liquor, and add four table-spoonfuls of pickled red cabbage, or six or eight red radishes cut up small. Pour some good salad-sauce over all, toss the vegetables lightly together, and serve. Half an ounce of mixed chervil-leaves mixed with the salad will improve its flavour.
A cold composed salad that depends on one step: the two-hour salting draws water out of the cucumber and artichoke so the dressing clings rather than pools. Skip it and the bowl floods.
- Raw artichoke bottomsThese are the fleshy bases of globe artichokes, trimmed of leaves and choke — half a pound is roughly four to six large ones. Raw, they brown within minutes, so rub the cut surfaces with lemon as you work; jarred or frozen artichoke bottoms are the practical substitute, drained and patted dry.
- Salting and drainingA light sprinkle of salt over the sliced vegetables, then two hours covered in the refrigerator. Drain off the liquor thoroughly and blot the slices; residual brine plus dressing will oversalt the finished dish.
- CucumberCucumbers were routinely peeled in this period, and the recipe takes it for granted. A modern English or Persian cucumber needs no peeling, but do scoop out watery seeds from a large field cucumber.
- "Good salad-sauce"The phrase is not defined here; it most likely means either a plain French dressing (three parts oil to one of vinegar, salt, pepper, a little mustard) or a boiled or mayonnaise-style cream sauce. Given the sharp pickled cabbage, the vinaigrette is the better match; about four tablespoons suits this quantity.
- Pickled red cabbageThe Victorian version was cabbage steeped in spiced malt vinegar, crisper and sharper than sauerkraut. Any vinegar-pickled red cabbage works; drain it well before adding, or use the radishes as the recipe allows.
- Half an ounce of chervilHalf an ounce of leaves is a generous loose handful, more than a modern recipe would normally call for. Chervil is delicate and fades fast, so add it at the last toss. Flat parsley with a pinch of tarragon is a fair stand-in if chervil is unavailable.
- YieldServes four as a side salad. It does not keep; the salted vegetables soften further overnight.
This belongs among the composed vegetable salads often said to have entered English cookery from French practice in the nineteenth century — vegetables sliced, seasoned and dressed rather than merely piled up as green "sallet". The salting-and-draining step is the same technique applied to cucumbers throughout the period, when varieties were more bitter and far more watery than today's. Raw artichoke bottoms suggest a summer dish: globe artichokes were a kitchen-garden crop as well as market produce. Pickled red cabbage, by contrast, was a standard jar in any Victorian larder, and its purple set against pale cucumber and artichoke — composed salads of this era were arranged for the eye at a cold table.