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Banana and Nut Salad
3 bananas 1/2 cup nuts 6 leaves lettuce 1/2 cup mayonnaise or boiled dressing Peel bananas and cut in two lengthwise. Roll in nut-meats. Place on lettuce leaf and garnish with dressing. Equal parts of dressing and whipped cream may be used.
A salad of the era when fruit, nuts and mayonnaise sat together on a lettuce leaf without apology. It takes five minutes, and the only real technique is keeping the bananas from browning.
- YieldThree bananas split lengthwise give six halves for six lettuce leaves, so this serves six as a side salad. Two halves each makes a light lunch plate for three.
- Assemble at the last minuteCut bananas begin to brown within minutes of peeling. Slice, roll and plate immediately before serving; a brush of lemon or pineapple juice on the cut face slows the discoloration and does not fight the dressing.
- Boiled dressingThe alternative named here is a cooked dressing of egg, vinegar, sugar, mustard and a little flour or butter, thickened over water and cooled. It is tarter and less rich than mayonnaise, and it appears constantly in household cookbooks of the period, before jarred mayonnaise became common.
- The nutsHalf a cup of nut meats chopped fine, not coarsely, or they will not adhere to the banana. Walnuts, pecans or blanched almonds all suit; toasting them briefly and cooling before use adds flavor the original does not ask for but does not object to.
- Making them stickA plain banana half is not tacky enough to hold nuts. Roll it in a thin film of the dressing, or in a little lemon juice, then in the nuts on a plate.
- Dressing and creamThe final variation means equal parts dressing and cream whipped to soft peaks, folded together gently. This lightens and sweetens the whole thing considerably and is the better choice if you are serving it as a fruit course rather than as a salad.
- LettuceUse a cupped leaf of butterhead or iceberg that will hold the banana in place. Crisp it in cold water and dry it thoroughly, since damp lettuce thins the dressing on the plate.
Fruit-and-mayonnaise salads on a lettuce leaf were among the most characteristic American dishes of the 1910s and 1920s, and the banana version depended on something new: cheap, reliably ripe bananas, moved north in refrigerated ships by the fruit companies until a tropical fruit became a year-round staple in ordinary grocery stores. The Delineator was a women's magazine built around Butterick dress patterns, and its recipe pages were aimed at cooks who wanted a course that looked composed and modern without demanding heat, skill or expense. The pairing of sweet fruit with a savory egg dressing reads oddly now, but at the time the salad course was understood as a place for exactly that contrast, and the offered substitution of whipped cream for half the dressing shows the dish sliding toward dessert even as it was printed.