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Red Kidney Bean Salad
1 large can red kidney beans 1 onion or more cut fine 6 sweet sour pickles cubed Mrs. V. L. Gerred. 1 stalk of celery Mayonnaise Wash kidney beans and drain, then add onions, pickles and celery, mix well and add mayonnaise. Serve on lettuce leaf.
A church-supper salad of the canned-goods era, and one of the few recipes that needs almost nothing done to it. The only real decisions are quantities, since the original leaves most of them open.
- "1 large can"Unspecified; in mid-century American canning this could be anything from a No. 303 (16 oz) to a No. 2 (about 20 oz) or larger. One 15-oz can is the nearest single modern tin; use two if you want the fuller quantity. Drain and rinse.
- Rinsing matters"Wash kidney beans and drain" is the hinge. Canning liquid is starchy and salty and will loosen and discolour the mayonnaise. Rinse well, then drain and blot.
- "1 stalk of celery"Period usage is ambiguous here: a stalk could mean a single rib or the whole bunch. For this quantity of beans, two or three ribs diced fine is the sensible reading.
- Sweet sour picklesProbably sweet pickles with a vinegar edge; bread-and-butter pickles or sweet gherkins are both reasonable stand-ins. Six, cubed as directed, plus a spoonful of their brine if the salad tastes flat.
- Mayonnaise, unmeasuredStart with about 1/2 cup and stop while the beans are still coated rather than swimming. The salad tightens as it sits, so err on the dry side.
- Onion"1 onion or more" cut fine will be sharp in a cold salad. A mild yellow or red onion is better than a strong cooking onion; soaking the dice in cold water for ten minutes takes the harshness off.
- Rest itAn hour in the refrigerator lets the celery and pickle flavour the beans.
- YieldServes six as a side, on individual lettuce leaves as directed.
Kidney bean salad turns up throughout twentieth-century American community cookbooks. The recipe belongs to the canned-goods age, when a tin of cooked beans meant a dish could be assembled in minutes without lighting the stove. The mayonnaise is worth noting too: commercially bottled mayonnaise became widely available in American groceries in the early decades of the century, and a recipe that simply says "Mayonnaise" with no quantity assumes a jar already in the icebox. The contribution is signed with a married name and initials, a common form in community collections, where each recipe doubled as a small credit to its household.