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Apple-and-Cress Salad
Pare 4 medium-sized apples and cut them into small pieces. Pour over them a French dressing, and heap in the centre of your salad bowl. Arrange the cress leaves around the dish, and serve.
A three-line salad that depends entirely on the dressing and on the apples not turning brown. Both need a little attention the original text does not give.
- Stop the browning firstDiced apple discolours within minutes of being cut. Toss the pieces in the dressing as you cut them, or hold them in water with a squeeze of lemon and drain well before dressing, or the bowl will look tired by the time it reaches the table.
- What "French dressing" meantIn books of this period it is simply oil and vinegar with salt and pepper; proportions vary from book to book, with something in the region of two to three parts oil to one of vinegar being common, mixed or shaken together before use. It is not the sweetened orange-coloured bottled dressing that later took the name in the United States.
- How much dressingThe recipe gives no quantity. About 1/4 cup of dressing coats four diced apples without pooling in the bottom of the bowl; add it in stages and taste.
- Which cressThe recipe says only "cress leaves", which in books of this period usually means watercress or garden cress, sold in bunches or as punnets of seedlings. Pick over the leaves, discard thick stems, and dry them thoroughly so the dressing does not slide off.
- Apple choiceA firm, tart variety holds its shape and stands up to vinegar. Granny Smith, Braeburn or a good russet work; soft mealy apples collapse into the dressing.
- Peeling is optionalThe recipe directs you to pare the apples, but leaving the skin on gives colour and structure, and the salad loses nothing.
- YieldFour apples make enough for four to six as a side salad. Assemble it at the last moment; the cress wilts once dressing reaches it.