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Carrot Salad
1 cup grated raw carrot 1 cup chopped raw cabbage or celery, or cabbage and celery combined 1 tablespoon lemon-juice 1/2 teaspoon salt Mayonnaise or boiled dressing Lettuce leaves Mix the ingredients well and serve on crisp lettuce leaves. The grated carrot may be combined also with cold boiled peas, with chopped nuts and apples, or with onions and radishes.
A raw vegetable salad of the sort that entered American cookbooks in the 1920s, when grated carrot was still something of a novelty. It needs almost no translation, but a few notes will improve the result.
- Grate fine, dress at onceUse the fine or medium holes of a box grater, or the shredding disc of a food processor. Toss the carrot with the lemon juice and salt before adding anything else, so the shreds are evenly seasoned.
- Salt and standing timeHalf a teaspoon of salt on two cups of raw vegetable will pull out water within about ten minutes. Either serve promptly or drain off the liquid before adding dressing, or the mayonnaise will slacken and pool on the lettuce.
- Boiled dressingThe alternative named here is a cooked dressing of the period: eggs or egg yolks with vinegar, mustard and milk, often thickened with a little flour or cornstarch over hot water, with sugar and butter in many versions. It is generally tarter and thinner than mayonnaise and suits the cabbage version well. Any modern cooked salad dressing recipe stands in.
- Cabbage cutCut the cabbage thin enough that it mixes evenly with the grated carrot rather than sitting in chunks.
- Quantity of dressingNo amount is given. Roughly three tablespoons of mayonnaise or a quarter cup of boiled dressing coats two cups of vegetables without drowning them; add it a spoonful at a time.
- YieldAbout two cups of salad, which serves four as a side portion on lettuce, or two as a lunch salad with the nuts and apples variation.
- The variationsThe cold boiled peas add no acidity of their own, so a little more lemon juice helps that version. Radish and onion are assertive enough that you may want less salt.