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Cauliflower Salad
I medium-sized head of cauli- Half a pint of Mayonnaise. flower, Boil the cauliflower as directed for the vegetable, throw into cold water and when perfectly cold, pick apart into little flowerets. Place it on a soft dry towel or napkin. When ready to serve arrange neatly in a salad bowl, cover with Mayonnaise, dust with chopped parsley or chopped chives, and serve.
A straightforward composed salad whose success rests entirely on the cauliflower being cooked short of collapse and then dried properly. Two points in the original need translation.
- Half a pint of mayonnaiseIn American measure that is one cup, enough to coat a medium head generously. If you are using commercial mayonnaise, thin it with a spoonful of lemon juice or cream so it drapes rather than sits in lumps.
- "Boil as directed for the vegetable"The cross-referenced method is not on this page, so the original cooking time is unknown; period instructions generally ran long. Modern practice stops much earlier: 4 to 6 minutes for florets, or roughly 10 to 15 for a whole trimmed head, until a knife meets slight resistance. Overcooked cauliflower turns sulphurous and falls apart when you try to break it into flowerets.
- The cold-water plungeThe recipe insists on it. Shocking in cold water halts the cooking; skipping it gives you a warm, softening head that will weep into the mayonnaise. Ice water is better than the cold tap.
- Drying on a towelNot optional decoration. Residual water thins mayonnaise into a puddle at the bottom of the bowl. Spread the florets in a single layer and leave them 15 minutes, turning once.
- Picking apart into floweretsBreak the head by hand along its natural seams rather than cutting, which shears the curds and leaves crumbs. Trim the thick stem ends flat so the pieces stand upright in the bowl.
- Chives and parsleyThe recipe does not specify which parsley; flat-leaf and curly both work. Chop at the last moment, since parsley chopped early goes dull and damp.
- YieldA medium head serves four to six as a side salad. Best assembled within an hour of serving; the mayonnaise loosens as the cauliflower continues to release moisture.
Cold boiled vegetables masked with mayonnaise were a staple of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American salad-making, when "salad" meant a dressed composition far more often than it meant raw leaves. Cauliflower was well suited to the treatment: it holds its shape, takes a sauce cleanly, and was a respectable, somewhat genteel vegetable in the period, more expensive than cabbage and often served as a course in its own right. The instruction to cool the head whole and only then break it into florets reflects a kitchen that boiled cauliflower whole, sometimes wrapped in cloth to keep it intact. The dish belongs to the same family as the French cauliflower salads and the various vegetable salads bound with mayonnaise that spread through English and American cookbooks as mayonnaise became a familiar household preparation over the nineteenth century.