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Water Lily Salad
6 eggs hard cooked 1 head lettuce boiled salad dressing Wash lettuce and reserve twelve medium sized leaves and cut rest into thin shreds. Remove shells from hard cooked eggs; 1/2 inch from each end of each egg, start cutting about six slanting lines at equal distances from each other, cutting clear through the white. Now cut six slanting lines the other way, starting at the same point, these lines should not be cut nearer the ends of the egg than half an inch. Lift up the points carefully and remove yolks, laying lilies on beds of shredded lettuce. Mix the yolks with boiled dressing, form balls and place in center of lilies. Serve cold.
A garnish salad that lives or dies on knifework: each hard-cooked egg is cut into two pointed "lilies" and refilled with a yolk ball. Nothing here is difficult, but the sequence of cuts rewards a sharp thin blade and cold eggs.
- The hinge: cut only the middleThe slanting cuts start half an inch in from each end and stop half an inch from the other end, so the two poles of the egg stay intact and hold the petals together. Cut all the way to the tip and the egg falls into loose wedges.
- Boiled dressingNot a dressing that has been boiled in the modern sense but the old cooked dressing — egg yolk, flour or cornstarch, vinegar, sugar, mustard and milk, thickened over water. A thick homemade mayonnaise or a tangy cooked-style dressing stands in without changing the result.
- Hard-cooked eggsCover eggs with cold water, bring to a boil, cover and stand off the heat 10-12 minutes, then chill thoroughly in ice water. Cold, fully set eggs slice cleanly; warm ones tear at the petal tips.
- Older eggs peel betterVery fresh eggs cling to the shell and leave pitted whites, which ruins the look. Use eggs a week or more old, and peel under running water.
- The reserved leavesTwelve whole leaves are set aside but the instructions never say what becomes of them; they may have been meant as cups to sit each lily in, with the shredded lettuce as the bed. Small, cupped inner leaves from the heart would suit.
- Yolk ballsSieve or mash the yolks smooth before adding dressing, and add it a teaspoon at a time — too much and the paste will not hold a ball. Chill the balls before setting them into the lilies.
- YieldThe twelve reserved leaves suggest twelve lilies from six eggs, though the recipe states neither a lily count nor a number of servings. Assemble no more than an hour ahead and keep refrigerated; cut whites dry out and curl.