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Spanish Salad
1 T onion. 1/8 t paprika. 2 tomatoes sliced 2 oranges sliced 1 green pepper shredded 1/8 T onion Serve with following French dressing. 1/2 t salt 1/3 C salad oil and 1 T lemon juice or 2 T vinegar 1st paprika
A plain tomato-and-orange salad with a shaken vinaigrette, typical of the terse church-cookbook style where the contributor assumed you already knew what she meant. Two numbers have clearly been garbled in transcription, so read them with care.
- "12 t salt" is a typoTwelve teaspoons of salt in a third of a cup of oil would be inedible. The intended quantity was probably a small fraction of a teaspoon, most likely 1/2. Salt to taste and no further.
- "1st paprika"The dressing calls for "1st paprika," which is still unclear as printed. Start with a pinch, which is enough to color the dressing.
- AbbreviationsT is tablespoon, t is teaspoon, C is cup. So the dressing is 1/3 cup oil to 1 tablespoon lemon juice or 2 tablespoons vinegar.
- That oil-to-acid ratioWith the lemon option the dressing is roughly five parts oil to one part acid, flatter than modern taste expects; the recipe's alternative of 2 T vinegar is already closer to three to one, which suits the oranges better.
- "Salad oil"In American recipes of this period this usually means a mild, neutral oil, often cottonseed and later corn, though some cooks used olive. A neutral oil is closest to the likely intent; olive oil makes a heavier, more assertive salad.
- Handle the oranges properlySlice them over a bowl and cut away the peel and white pith. Any juice that escapes counts toward the acid in the dressing.
- Dress at the last minuteSalted tomato slices weep quickly and orange juice thins the dressing further. Combine, dress, and take it to the table.
- YieldTwo tomatoes and two oranges give four small side servings. Any dressing left over keeps refrigerated for a few days.
Between about 1890 and 1930 American cookbooks are generally said to have attached "Spanish" to almost anything containing green pepper, onion, tomato or paprika, the same logic often credited with producing Spanish rice and Spanish omelet; the label seems to have signaled sunny and slightly piquant rather than any actual Iberian dish. Fruit-and-vegetable salads under a French dressing were fashionable in roughly this period, when the arrival of more reliable winter citrus by rail is thought to have made oranges an ordinary rather than a luxury item in the Midwest.