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Grapefruit and Grape Salad
2 cups grapefruit sections 2 tablespoons grape-juice 2 tablespoons French dressing 1/2 cup Malaga grapes, peeled and seeded Peel fine large grapefruit and separate the sections, removing every particle of the bitter white inner skin. Peel and seed the grapes and mix with the grapefruit. Set aside, covered, on ice until very cold. Pour over them the grape-juice and French dressing.
A simple fruit salad from the era when grapefruit was still a slightly luxurious breakfast novelty. Nearly all the work is in the membrane removal.
- The hinge: remove all pith and membraneGrapefruit membrane is bitter and toughens the moment dressing hits it. Cut the top and bottom off the fruit, pare away the peel and white pith down to the flesh, then cut each section free from the membrane walls with a small sharp knife, working over a bowl to catch juice.
- Quantity of fruitTwo cups of sections is roughly two large grapefruit. Ruby or pink varieties are sweeter and less aggressive than the older white grapefruit this recipe assumes, which will shift the balance toward sweetness.
- Malaga grapesMalagas were a large, firm, green-skinned table grape sold with seeds. Any large seeded grape works; with modern seedless grapes, skip the seeding but consider halving them so they take up dressing.
- Peeling grapesA brief dip in boiling water followed by ice water helps loosen the skins of large grapes, though thick-skinned varieties may need longer or a knife. Peeling is optional by current taste.
- "On ice"An icebox instruction. An hour in the refrigerator, covered, is enough; the recipe wants the fruit thoroughly cold before it is dressed.
- French dressingIn cookbooks of this period the term generally means a plain shaken vinaigrette of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, not the sweet orange bottled dressing sold under the name today. About three parts oil to one part mild vinegar or lemon juice.
- Grape juiceBottled unfermented juice of the period was usually Concord, dark and often sweetened. Bottled Concord juice gives the intended color and flavor; white grape juice will be much less assertive.
- Dress at the last momentGrapefruit weeps steadily once cut. Pour the juice and dressing over just before serving, or the salad sits in a thin pink pool.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; two cups of sections plus grapes will serve about four as a first course or side salad, spooned onto crisp lettuce.