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Chicken Salad in Cracker Cases
To make the six cracker cases, soak one teaspoonful of gelatin in two teaspoonfuls of cold water, and dissolve in two tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Take twenty-four small square soda crackers and put four of them together in box shape, fastening the edges with the gelatin mixture; do this by dipping the edge of the cracker in gelatin and pressing them together, then with a teaspoon put a little more gelatin between the edges of the crackers. Set in a cool dry place to harden. Arrange these little bottomless and topless cracker boxes on a platter and fill with diced chicken and celery mixed with mayonnaise; garnish with cress.
A construction job more than a cooking one: the gelatin is mortar, not an ingredient you taste. Everything depends on the walls being dry and rigid before the salad arrives.
- Assemble at the last possible hourThe gelatin joints hold, but the crackers themselves draw moisture from the mayonnaise soon after filling. Build the boxes in the morning, fill them shortly before they go to the table.
- The crackers"Small square soda crackers" means saltines, roughly 2 inches square. They break easily, so work over a tray and buy extra beyond the twenty-four.
- Gelatin quantitiesOne teaspoon of powdered gelatin in 2 teaspoons cold water, dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water, gives a thin syrup that sets firm. That is enough glue for all six cases with a little to spare. If it stiffens while you work, set the cup in warm water.
- Bottomless by designThese are four-sided rings with no floor. Choose a flat platter, not a curved one, or the joints will not sit flush and the salad will seep out the base. A bed of cress under each box catches any leakage and does the garnishing at once.
- Filling amounts, which the original omitsFor six cases, about 2 cups diced cooked chicken and 1 cup fine-diced celery bound with 1/2 to 2/3 cup mayonnaise fills them generously. Mound the salad slightly above the rim so it reads as a filled box.
- Keep the filling cold and firmA loose, warm chicken salad will slump the walls. Dress it and chill it thoroughly first; drain any liquid from the celery before mixing.
- CressGarden cress or watercress, both peppery, both correct here. Trim the thick stems and use only the leafy tops.
- YieldSix cases, one per person as a light lunch course.
The dish belongs to an American genre of hot-weather cookery in which the aim was a composed plate that required no oven and, ideally, no stove at all. Chicken salad bound with mayonnaise was by then a fixture of the luncheon table, and the real problem the book is solving is presentation: how to make a scoop of cold salad look like an achievement. The answer here is architectural rather than culinary, using gelatin as adhesive and stiffener rather than as a jelly to be eaten. Factory-made soda crackers, cheap and uniformly square, were the obvious building material; their very blandness is what lets them pass as tableware.