Salmon Mayonnaise (Boil or eggs hard then peel)

A cold composed salad of the kind that filled sideboards at luncheons and church suppers, built on two things a household could keep on hand: hard-boiled eggs and a tin of salmon. The only real difficulty is the vague salmon measurement.

• "5 pieces of canned salmon"This is genuinely ambiguous and no honest conversion exists. Period tins commonly ran to about a pound, and salmon packed in the can breaks into large curds or "pieces"; five of them might be anything from a few ounces to most of a tin. Start with roughly half a small (6 oz) can to a cupful of mayonnaise and add more until you have a spreadable pink mixture, rather than working to a measured weight.
• Canned salmon then and nowNineteenth-century pack included skin and vertebrae, which cooked soft in the can and were mashed in with everything else. Modern skinless-boneless fillets in cans are drier; traditional pink or red salmon with the bones crushed in makes a richer, more authentic mixture.
• Rub, not fold"Rub" means work the fish into the mayonnaise with the back of a spoon or a fork until it is a smooth, pourable dressing with no lumps of fish left whole. If it stays chunky it will sit on the eggs rather than coat them. Drain the salmon well first or the dressing slackens.
• MayonnaiseHomemade mayonnaise of this period was often thicker and more sharply acidulated than commercial jarred mayonnaise. A little lemon juice and a pinch of salt will bring a modern jar closer to what the recipe seems to assume.
• Eggs on iceThe instruction to peel and chill is doing real work: warm hard-boiled eggs crumble when sliced, while thoroughly cold ones cut clean. Thirty minutes in the refrigerator, or ten in ice water, is enough. An egg slicer or a thin wet knife gives the tidiest rounds.
• Assembly and timingDress this no more than half an hour before serving. The salmon mayonnaise weeps onto the lettuce and the leaves collapse if it stands, and the whole point of the dish is the contrast of crisp leaf against soft egg.
• LettuceWhole cupped leaves of butterhead or romaine heart work best for lining the bowl, since the dressing is poured over them. Shredded or bagged salad will not hold up.
• YieldSeven or eight eggs and a tin of salmon make a light luncheon dish for four to six, or more as a first course or buffet dish. Reserve a couple of eggs' worth of slices for the garnish before you start pouring, as the recipe directs.