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Saxon Salad (Sometimes Called Sardonic Salad)
Take 2 Dutch herrings, soak them in water, boil, cut them first into thin slices and then into narrow strips. Cut up cold meat in the same way, also some sour juicy apples and a little pickled beetroot. Mix well, and season with pepper and a small onion minced very fine. Moisten the salad with oil, vinegar, and milk or cream in equal parts.
A German herring salad of the type served cold from a bowl, built on salt-cured fish, cooked meat, apple and beet. The dressing is the unusual part: oil, vinegar and cream in equal measure.
- What a Dutch herring isSalt-cured herring sold in brine or as milder maatjes/matjes fillets, not fresh fish and not the sweet-pickled jarred kind in sauce. Look for them at Dutch, German, Polish or Scandinavian delis; whole salted herring will need boning after soaking.
- Soak, and taste before you dressCover the fish with cold water and refrigerate several hours, changing the water two or three times; heavily salted whole herring may want overnight. Salt levels vary enormously between brands, so taste a scrap before deciding how much dressing and pepper it needs.
- The boilingCured herring needs only a brief poach in barely simmering water, a couple of minutes at most, and mild matjes fillets need none at all. Held at a rolling boil the flesh shreds and the salad turns to paste.
- Cold meatPeriod shorthand for leftover roast, often beef or veal. Roughly equal in volume to the herring works well; cut in strips the same size so the salad forks up evenly.
- Sour juicy applesA firm tart variety such as Granny Smith or Bramley, peeled and cut in matchsticks. Toss them with a spoonful of the vinegar as you cut to keep them from browning.
- Pickled beetrootVinegar-pickled beets, drained and diced small. Add them last and fold gently, or the whole bowl goes uniformly pink.
- The dressingEqual parts oil, vinegar and milk or cream is much sharper than a modern vinaigrette. Whisk the oil and dairy together first, then add the vinegar slowly so the cream does not curdle. The recipe gives no measures; a quarter cup of each is a reasonable starting point for this quantity.
- Resting and yieldChill an hour before serving so the fish, apple and beet exchange flavour, but not overnight, as the apples soften and the cream thins. No yield is given; two herrings with a comparable amount of meat should make four to six portions as a first course or supper dish, on lettuce or with dark rye bread.