Home › Company and Sunday Dinner Menus › Carrot and Apple Salad
Carrot and Apple Salad
1 cup thin apple slices 1/2 cup mayonnaise lettuce 1 cup ground raw carrots Arrange the apple slices on the lettuce in over-lapping circles, place mayonnaise in center and sprinkle carrot over the dressing.
A composed salad from the era when a plate of arranged fruit and vegetable with a spoonful of dressing counted as a course in its own right. It takes five minutes, so everything depends on the cutting and on when you assemble it.
- Assemble at the last minuteSliced apple browns within about ten minutes of cutting, and grated carrot weeps. Cut and grate just before serving, or toss the apple in lemon juice and keep the components separate until the plates go out.
- "Ground raw carrots"This means carrot put through the fine plate of a food grinder — a fluffy, slightly damp shred. The nearest modern equivalent is the fine side of a box grater or the shredding disc of a food processor. Squeeze out excess liquid before sprinkling.
- Apple slices"Thin" is not defined; slices thin enough to lie flat and overlap in a ring are what the arrangement calls for. A firm, tart-sweet apple holds its shape and colour best; a mealy variety collapses under the dressing.
- The mayonnaiseThe half cup is meant to sit in a mound in the centre without running, so it needs to be stiff. If yours is slack, chill it, or fold in a spoonful of thick yogurt or sour cream to firm it up.
- LettuceA cup-shaped leaf per plate works best, since it acts as a container as much as a garnish. Wash and dry it thoroughly or the dressing will slide.
- YieldAs written this fills two salad plates generously, or four if served alongside a substantial main course.
Salads like this belong to the American "arranged salad" tradition common in home entertaining from roughly the 1910s through the 1950s: raw fruit and vegetable cut into regular shapes, laid out in a deliberate pattern on a lettuce leaf, and finished with a spoonful of mayonnaise. The appeal was partly nutritional — raw carrot was widely promoted in this period for its vitamin content — and partly visual. The carrot-and-apple pairing survives today mostly in its tossed form, dressed and mixed rather than layered.