Lettuce Salad
Throw away the outer leaves of the head of lettuce; wash the rest carefully in running water and dry them in a clean towel. Break or tear the leaves into convenient pieces and serve with Mayonnaise, cream or French dressing.
A four-line recipe whose whole substance is technique: get the leaves clean, get them dry, tear rather than cut, dress at the last minute.
- Drying is the hingeWater clinging to the leaves dilutes the dressing and stops it clinging, which is why the towel step is written out. A salad spinner does the same job faster; finish with a brief roll in a towel if the leaves still feel damp.
- Tear, don't cutTearing follows the natural line of the leaf and bruises less than a knife edge dragged across the ribs. It is often said that carbon-steel knives of the period discoloured cut lettuce, though the recipe gives no reason of its own; it simply says to break or tear.
- What lettuce is meant'A head of lettuce' in a book of this date most likely means a soft butterhead or a loose leaf type rather than the dense iceberg that later dominated American groceries. Bibb, Boston or a green leaf lettuce gives a texture consistent with the method.
- Chill before dressingThe recipe does not mention chilling, but cold, crisp leaves suit it: wash and dry ahead, hold the leaves loosely wrapped in the refrigerator, and dress shortly before serving, since dressed leaves soften quickly.
- French dressing, period senseIn American books of this era French dressing means plain oil and vinegar seasoned with salt and pepper, roughly three parts oil to one of vinegar. It is not the sweetened orange bottled dressing sold under that name today.
- Cream as a dressingThe recipe says only 'cream'. Period cream dressings were commonly sharpened with a little vinegar or lemon juice and salt, which thickens the cream slightly on contact with the acid; it suits mild butterhead better than a robust leaf.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; one good head will serve roughly three to four as a side salad. Dress sparingly at first and add more only if the leaves look dry after tossing.
Green salad served plain with a choice of dressings was a mark of the lighter, more "scientific" American cookery that took hold around the turn of the twentieth century, when cooking-school teachers pushed fresh vegetables and simple handling in place of the heavy composed salads of the Victorian table. Mrs. Fryer's recipe belongs to the same practical school-and-household tradition, and a recipe this short survives in print precisely because the instructions that matter are the invisible ones: wash, dry, tear, dress late. The three dressings offered map the whole American range of the period, with mayonnaise the richest and most formal, cream the domestic middle ground, and oil-and-vinegar French dressing the lightest option, generally traced to the way salads were served in France and adopted here as the plainest treatment a good head of lettuce could be given.