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Cheese Salad
½ lb. American cheese 1/2 pint (I cup) chopped cooked chicken I/4 pint (1/2 cup) chopped stuffed olives 2 hard cooked eggs 1 teaspoonful French mustard 3 tablespoonfuls vinegar 4 tablespoonfuls olive oil Salt and red pepper to taste Chop the cheese and mix it with the chicken and olives. Rub soft the yolks of the eggs, add the mustard, the vinegar, the oil, and seasonings to taste. Pour the sauce over the salad in ramequins and garnish with the whites of the eggs cut into small pieces.
A cold composed salad of cheese, chicken and olives bound with a yolk-thickened vinaigrette, served in individual dishes. The only cooking is the eggs and the chicken, so everything depends on the proportions and the dressing.
- The cheese quantityAs printed, 1½ lb of cheese to 1 cup of chicken and ½ cup of olives gives a dish that is overwhelmingly cheese and will not take up 7 tablespoons of dressing evenly. Half a pound, roughly 2 cups chopped, balances the other ingredients; scale up only if you want cheese to dominate.
- American cheeseAt the time this meant plain factory cheddar, firm and mild, not the processed slices sold under the name now. Use a mild yellow cheddar and cut it into small dice rather than shredding, so it keeps its shape under the dressing.
- French mustardA smooth, mild prepared mustard rather than sharp English mustard powder. A teaspoon of Dijon is a reasonable stand-in.
- Red pepperCayenne, used in pinches. Start with a scant 1/8 teaspoon; it is there to lift the cheese, not to be tasted as heat.
- RamequinsSmall individual earthenware or porcelain dishes, what a modern kitchen calls ramekins. The salad is not baked in them; they are simply serving cups. Small glass bowls or coupe dishes work as well.
- Rubbing the yolksPress the cooked yolks through a sieve or mash them very smooth with the back of a spoon before adding anything. Any lumps left at this stage stay lumps, and the yolk is what keeps the oil and vinegar from separating on the plate.
- Dressing orderWork the mustard into the yolks, then the vinegar, then add the oil slowly while stirring. Adding the oil first tends to give a thin dressing that separates quickly.
- Yield and servingWith the reduced cheese, this fills about four ramekins as a lunch course. Dress it shortly before serving, chilled.
Yolk-thickened dressings of this sort were common before bottled mayonnaise became widely available, and rubbing hard-cooked yolks soft to carry oil and vinegar is a long-established way of holding a dressing together.