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Winter Salads

In winter-time excellent salads may be made with endive, celery, beetroot, scraped horse-radish, boiled potatoes, or whatever vegetables are available. A pretty effect may be produced by contrasting the different colours of the ingredients. Two or three recipes are given for the preparation of a dish which may be varied in numberless ways. No. 1. Wash thoroughly in two or three waters a head of endive and another of celery. Dry them perfectly, and put with them a small proportion of red cabbage finely shredded, and some mustard and cress, if it is to be had. Rub the inside of a salad bowl with a slice of fresh onion, put in the mixed vegetables, toss them lightly in good salad sauce, garnish the salad with slices of boiled beetroot, and serve. No. 2. Wash a head of endive, dry it perfectly, and shred it finely. Place it in the centre of a dish, and arrange neatly round it, first, a little red cabbage, and then some white celery cut up small. Garnish the salad with sliced beetroot, and hard-boiled eggs, cut into quarters lengthwise. Send the sauce to table in a boat, and mix it with the salad at the moment of serving. No. 3. Take equal portions of pickled cabbage, fresh celery, and cold boiled potato--one pound of each. Cut the celery into small pieces, throw them into boiling water for ten minutes, and drain them. Drain the cabbage from its vinegar, mix it with the celery, and add the cold boiled potatoes thinly sliced. Pepper the salad, toss it lightly in three table-spoonfuls of good Lucca oil, add a table-spoonful of chopped tarragon leaves, and serve. No. 4. Boil some small onions; let them get cold, then place them at the bottom of a salad bowl, and put round them three or four gherkins chopped small. Cover with pieces of herring or anchovy, and add a liberal allowance of pickled tunny or salmon. Sprinkle a little chopped parsley and a table-spoonful of bruised capers over the salad, and garnish with hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters lengthwise, and olives from which the kernels have been removed. Serve a good sauce with the salad. Cold boiled potatoes, Brussels sprouts, endive, or celery will be a valuable addition. Beetroot and raw apples may also be added. No. 5. Procure two heads of celery; wash and dry them, and cut the white stalks into pieces an inch long. Toss them lightly in a salad bowl with some mayonnaise sauce. Cover the surface with hard-boiled yolk of egg which has been rubbed through a wire sieve; sprinkle a tea-spoonful of chopped green parsley over the egg, and garnish the celery with a border of boiled beetroot, cut into thin strips and arranged like trellis-work. Two or three black truffles, chopped small and sprinkled over the egg yolk, will have a very good appearance and improve the flavour of the salad. German sausage or pink ham, thinly sliced, may be served round the salad. Cold dressed vegetables, finely shredded, and seasoned with pepper, salt, oil, and vinegar, may be served as a salad (see also RUSSIAN SALAD).