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Macedoine Salad No. I
1 cup diced carrots 1/2 cup diced potatoes 1 cup string beans 1/2 cup diced sweet potatoes 1/2 cup diced turnips 1/2 cup French dressing Cook the vegetables separately, adding salt toward the last of the cooking. When cool, cut into half-inch cubes. Canned beans may be used if fresh ones are not obtainable. They should be cut into half-inch lengths. Vegetables other than those mentioned may be used. Cauliflower, beets, peas, celery, etc., may be substituted if desired. Two or three vegetables only may be used; mix the vegetables with the French dressing. Garnish the salad with lettuce leaves.
A composed vegetable salad that depends almost entirely on how the vegetables are cooked. The instructions are loose by design; the discipline is in the timing.
- Cook whole, cube afterThe ingredient list says diced, but the method says to cut into half-inch cubes once cool. Boil or steam the roots in large chunks or whole and cut them down afterward — small dice cooked in water turns waterlogged and breaks up when dressed.
- Separately means separatelyEach vegetable has its own timing and each bleeds color. Carrots want 8-12 minutes, potatoes and sweet potatoes 12-15, turnips 8-10, string beans 5-6 for a bean with some snap left. Beets, if used, should be cooked and dressed apart or the whole bowl goes pink.
- Salt at the endThe original adds salt "toward the last of the cooking." Salt the cooking water for potatoes and sweet potatoes freely; they need it.
- French dressing of the periodNot the sweet orange bottled kind. Period French dressings run roughly two to three parts oil to one part vinegar with salt and pepper, whisked or shaken — at three to one, about 6 tablespoons oil to 2 tablespoons vinegar for the half cup called for here.
- Dress warm, serve coolThe recipe says to dress when cool, but root vegetables absorb dressing best while still slightly warm. Dress at blood heat, then chill; adjust salt and vinegar again before serving, since cold mutes both.
- Canned beansCanned string beans here means whole or cut green beans in brine, not white beans. Drain and rinse them, and skip cooking entirely — they are already soft.
- YieldAbout 3 1/2 cups of dressed vegetables, enough for four as a side salad. The lettuce is a garnish and a liner, not part of the mixture.
Macédoine is French kitchen vocabulary for a mixture of vegetables or fruits cut to uniform small dice. The name is traditionally linked to the mixed peoples of Macedonia under Alexander, though this is folk etymology rather than documented derivation; the culinary term is attested in French from the eighteenth century. By the time this book was printed the term was in general American household use as a catch-all for cold cooked vegetables in dressing, which is why the instructions here shrug at the ingredient list and invite substitutions.