Tomato Salad
4 tomatoes 2 cucumbers 1 head lettuce 1 teaspoon minced parsley 6 blades of chives 4 green tarragon leaves 1 measure French dressing Scald and skin the tomatoes by plunging them in boiling water, either slice or divide and chill. Arrange the tomatoes and cucumbers on prepared lettuce leaves, sprinkle with minced parsley, chives and tarragon leaves and serve with French dressing.
A straightforward composed salad that needs almost no translation, though a few of its terms and habits are of their period.
- "1 measure French dressing"A "measure" is not defined here. French dressing of this period ordinarily meant a simple vinaigrette of roughly three parts oil to one part vinegar with salt and pepper; make enough to dress a salad for four.
- Skinning the tomatoesScore an X in the base, hold in boiling water 15-30 seconds, then drop into ice water. Much longer and the flesh under the skin begins to cook and slumps when sliced.
- Blades of chivesA blade is one stalk, so six is a small pinch rather than a bunch. Snip them with scissors instead of chopping, which bruises them and dulls the onion note.
- Tarragon"green tarragon" here almost certainly indicates fresh rather than dried. Four leaves is restrained; tarragon is assertive and will take over tomato quickly.
- CucumbersThe recipe says nothing about peeling or salting. Salting sliced cucumber for ten minutes and draining will keep the plate from flooding, if you want it.
- Chill, then dressThe instruction to chill matters more than it looks: dressing goes on at the table, not in advance. Tomatoes weep salt-drawn juice within minutes and thin the vinaigrette.
- YieldNot stated; the quantities suggest roughly four as a side salad.
Tomato salads appear late in American cookbooks relative to other vegetables; it is often said that well into the nineteenth century the tomato carried a reputation for being at best medicinal and at worst suspect, though that account is likely overstated, and it is generally traced to the 1830s-1860s that it became ordinary garden produce in the United States. By the time flour millers were issuing promotional cookbooks in the early twentieth century, a raw tomato salad with French dressing was a fixture of the summer table, and the trio of parsley, chives and tarragon here is a nod to the French-influenced cookery that American domestic-science writers of the period held up as the standard. Washburn-Crosby, the Minneapolis milling firm that later became General Mills, was among the companies issuing such books, and salads like this one were included to round out volumes whose real business was selling flour.