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Orange Salad
Select Jamaica or Messina oranges of uniform size and small, cut in thin slices and slices in quarters. Marinate with one-third cup of olive oil, two tablespoons of lemon juice, six drops of tabasco sauce, one-half teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of paprika mixed together. Serve on a bed of watercress -Maria Willett Howard.
A sharp, savory fruit salad from the era when "salad" often meant fruit dressed with oil and vinegar rather than sugar and cream. The dressing is assertive; the oranges need to be prepared carefully or the texture defeats it.
- The oranges"Jamaica" and "Messina" named the ports the fruit shipped from rather than modern varieties; both were sold in American markets in this period, though the recipe tells us nothing about how they differed in flavor. Any thin-skinned, firm sweet orange works; navels or Cara Caras hold their shape best. Blood oranges are handsome here.
- Peel to the fleshThe recipe says nothing about peeling, but the fruit is presumably meant to be pared of peel and white pith before slicing. Slice off top and bottom, stand the fruit up, and pare down the sides following the curve; bitter pith will ruin the dressing's balance.
- Dressing proportionsOne-third cup oil to two tablespoons lemon juice is roughly 3:1, oil-heavy by modern taste. If you want the citrus to read brighter, go to 1/4 cup oil, or add a splash of the juice that collects as you cut.
- Tabasco and paprikaSix drops of Tabasco is genuinely modest heat. A teaspoon of paprika is there for color as much as flavor; use sweet Hungarian paprika, not smoked, which will overwhelm the fruit.
- Marinating timeNo time is given. Twenty to thirty minutes chilled is enough for the dressing to penetrate; much longer and the slices slump and weep.
- The watercressWatercress is doing real work, its pepperiness pairing with the Tabasco. Dress the cress only with what drains off the oranges, or it will wilt flat on the plate.
- YieldThe recipe gives no number of oranges. About four small ones would suit this quantity of dressing, serving four as a first course or a side salad alongside duck, ham or cold roast pork.
Maria Willett Howard was a cookbook writer of the early twentieth century, best known for *Lowney's Cook Book*; her name attached to a recipe in a general household compilation was a mark of authority for the period's readers. The salad itself belongs to a moment when American cooks were learning fruit could be dressed savory rather than sweet. The named oranges are the historical detail worth pausing on: American markets bought oranges by port of origin, and "Jamaica" or "Messina" told a shopper as much about flavor and season as a variety name does now.