Spanish Salad
3 good-sized tomatoes. 2 green peppers. 1 Spanish onion. 1 can pimento. 1 slice of each on lettuce with mayonnaise.
A composed salad written in shorthand, as many of Mrs. Wilson's salad entries were. The quantities are a shopping list; the assembly line at the end tells you what to do with them.
- How it is actually assembled"1 slice of each on lettuce with mayonnaise" means one slice of tomato, one ring of green pepper, one ring of onion and one piece of pimento stacked on a lettuce leaf, per serving. No yield is given; the quantities will cover several such plates depending on how thickly you slice.
- Spanish onionStill sold under that name: a large, pale, mild globe onion. It matters here because the onion is raw and sliced thin — a yellow storage onion would dominate the plate. A sweet onion is the closest substitute.
- Canned pimentoSold today as a small jar or can of roasted sweet red pimiento peppers, commonly 4 to 7 oz. One jar is more than enough. Drain and pat dry or the mayonnaise will thin and run.
- Green peppers, rawThese are unripe bell peppers, used raw and unpeeled. Cut them crosswise into rings and remove the core and seeds, so each portion gets an intact ring rather than chopped pieces.
- Slice thicknessCut the tomato about a quarter inch thick and the onion as thin as your knife allows. Salt the tomato slices lightly and let them drain a few minutes on a paper towel; otherwise the plate floods.
- MayonnaiseThe mayonnaise wants to be thick enough to sit on a slice of tomato without spreading; a homemade one would have been usual in a kitchen of this date. Jarred mayonnaise works; if it seems loose, simply use less, or the salad turns into dressing with vegetables in it.
- Serve coldEverything should be thoroughly chilled and the plates assembled just before they go to the table. Built ahead, the lettuce wilts under the wet tomato.
Mrs. Mary A. Wilson wrote her Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book for a wide American audience around 1920, and by then "Spanish" on a menu was less a claim about Spain than a shorthand for the tomato-pepper-onion trio, the same logic that gave American kitchens Spanish rice and Spanish omelet. Canned pimento is the period detail here: sweet peppers of the Spanish pimiento type were being grown and canned commercially in Georgia from the 1910s, which put a bright red, already-roasted pepper within reach of any grocery order and made it a favorite garnish in salads, sandwich fillings and the cheese spread that still carries its name. The recipe's telegraphic style is typical of the book's salad chapter, where Wilson assumed a cook who needed the combination suggested rather than the knife work explained.