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Cucumber Salad, Salmon Dressing
2 cucumbers 1 onion 1 cup salmon dressing seasoning Make individual salads. On each plate place bed of shredded lettuce, several thin slices pared cucumbers, little of the minced onion, salt and pepper. Remove bones and skin, and shred the salmon. Add to it a sour, highly seasoned dressing. Beat thoroughly and pour over each portion of salad.
A composed cucumber salad in which the dressing itself carries the fish. The instruction that matters is the word sour: the dressing must be sharp enough to cut both the oily salmon and the watery cucumber, or the plate tastes flat.
- What "salmon dressing" meansIt is not a bottled product but a dressing you build: shredded cooked or canned salmon beaten into a tart mayonnaise or boiled dressing until it thickens into a spoonable sauce. The recipe calls for one cup of it and does not say how many plates that covers.
- How much salmonThe ingredient line gives the dressing volume but not the fish. Use a small can, drained, and beat in only as much dressing as is needed to reach the cup of finished salmon dressing the recipe asks for.
- The sour dressing"Highly seasoned" in this context generally points to vinegar or lemon well forward, often with mustard and cayenne. If you use commercial mayonnaise, thin and sharpen it with lemon juice and a spoonful of vinegar before adding the salmon.
- Pared cucumbersParing was the standard instruction in books of this kind. With thin-skinned English or Persian cucumbers you can leave the skin on.
- Drain the slicesSalt the cucumber slices, let them stand fifteen minutes, then blot dry. Otherwise they weep and slacken the dressing on the plate.
- The onionA whole onion minced through the dish is aggressive by modern taste. Mince a quarter of a mild onion, or use shallot or scallion, and rinse it briefly in cold water to take off the harshness.
- Beat thoroughlyThe beating is what emulsifies the flaked fish into the dressing so it pours rather than sits in lumps. A fork works; a small whisk or a few pulses in a food processor works better.
- Yield and timingThe recipe says only "individual salads" and gives no count. Assemble the plates no more than a few minutes before serving, and keep the salmon dressing refrigerated until it goes on.