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Carrot Salad
1 cup grated raw carrots 1 cup grapes, halved and seeded 1/2 cup diced celery 1/4 cup chopped nut meats (salted peanuts) Mix together and fill a small cup to turn out as a mold. Mold onto lettuce leaf, garnish with mayonnaise.
A dry-mixed salad packed into a cup and unmolded, in the style of the 1920s and 30s luncheon plate. It holds together only because it is pressed firmly, so that step carries the whole dish.
- The hinge is the packingThere is no gelatin or dressing binding this, so the mixture must be pressed hard into the cup with the back of a spoon and turned out immediately. A loosely filled cup collapses into a heap the moment it is inverted.
- GrapesThe recipe assumes seeded table grapes that were halved by hand. Modern seedless grapes need only halving, which also keeps them from rolling apart in the mold.
- Grate the carrots fineCoarse shreds leave air pockets and will not knit together. The fine side of a box grater, or the shredding disc of a food processor, gives the dense pack this needs.
- Salted peanutsThe recipe names salted peanuts in the parenthesis. They carry most of the salt in the mixture itself, so if you use walnuts or pecans instead, add salt.
- CeleryDice small, no larger than the grated carrot is wide, or the mold will fracture along the pieces.
- Mayonnaise garnishPeriod usage means a spoonful set on top or beside the mold, not a dressing stirred through. Stirring it in will make the mixture too slack to unmold.
- YieldAbout 2 3/4 cups of mixture, enough for three to four individual molds as a salad course, or two as a lunch plate.
- TimingAssemble close to serving. Grated carrot and cut grapes both weep, and a mold that has stood an hour will slump and leave liquid on the lettuce.