Fruit Salad

A composed salad plate rather than a tossed bowl, from an era when a summer luncheon was expected to arrive cold and look deliberate. The whole thing hinges on the dressing and on draining the fruit properly.

• Cream mayonnaiseNot a brand or a bottled product: mayonnaise lightened with cream, often whipped cream folded in, with proportions varying from a spoonful or two up to roughly equal parts. Fold gently and dress the plate at the last minute, since it thins as it stands and as the fruit gives up juice.
• Choosing the fruit"Several kinds" wants contrast in colour and texture rather than variety for its own sake: melon, grapes, orange or grapefruit sections, pear, pineapple. Bananas and apples brown quickly, so cut them last and toss in citrus juice, and keep berries whole so they do not bleed into the dressing.
• Canned fruitDrain it hard, ideally on a rack or paper towel for ten minutes, or the syrup will slacken the dressing into pink soup. Fruit packed in juice rather than heavy syrup sits better against a savoury dressing.
• Hearts of lettuceThe pale inner leaves of iceberg or a firm butterhead, cupped to hold the fruit. Chill them dry and crisp; a wet leaf and a cream dressing do not hold together on the plate.
• Sliced tongueBeef tongue, cooked and pressed, was a standard delicatessen item in this period and is now a special order from a butcher or a well-stocked deli counter. Thinly sliced cold roast beef, ham or smoked turkey fills the same role: a salted, meaty foil to sweet fruit.
• Raw egg in the dressingIf you make the mayonnaise yourself the egg is never cooked and the salad is served cold and left to stand. Use pasteurised eggs or a commercial mayonnaise, and keep the assembled plates refrigerated until they go to the table.
• Yield and servingNo quantities are given at all. Reckon roughly a cup of diced fruit, two tablespoons of dressing and two or three slices of tongue per person; the recipe says only to arrange the fruit on hearts of lettuce and serve the tongue alongside.