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Artichoke Salad
One bottle of French artichokes, French dressing, mayonnaise dressing, lettuce, parsley, onion if desired.
Wash the artichokes in cold water and cover with the French dressing. When ready to serve, place one artichoke on a few crisp lettuce leaves; then put a tablespoonful of the mayonnaise on top. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. A few drops of onion juice may be added if desired.
A plated salad that depends almost entirely on the quality of two dressings and on giving the artichokes long enough in the vinaigrette to lose their brine.
- "One bottle of French artichokes"These would have been imported jars of cooked artichoke bottoms or small whole hearts, most likely packed in brine. A 12-14 oz jar or can of artichoke hearts or bottoms, drained, is the closest modern substitute; frozen hearts, thawed and blotted, will also serve.
- Rinse, then marinateThe cold-water wash is not optional fussing: bottled artichokes carry a salty packing liquid. The recipe has them sitting in the French dressing until serving time, which is what turns them from preserved vegetable into salad.
- French dressing meant vinaigretteIn a book of this vintage French dressing is oil, vinegar, salt and pepper whisked or shaken together, roughly three parts oil to one of vinegar. It is not the sweet orange bottled dressing that later took the name in the United States.
- MayonnaiseThe period assumption is a thick homemade mayonnaise beaten with raw yolk, which sits on the artichoke rather than running off it. Good jarred mayonnaise is fine here; if you make your own and are serving anyone vulnerable, use pasteurised eggs.
- Onion juiceGrate half an onion on a fine grater and press the pulp through a sieve, or squeeze it in cheesecloth. A few drops is the correct dose; the point is a savoury edge, not onion flavour.
- Yield and assemblyThe recipe gives no yield; reckoning one artichoke bottom or two small hearts per person, a jar of the size suggested would serve four to six as a first course. The recipe's "when ready to serve" points to assembling at the last moment, before the mayonnaise slumps and the lettuce wilts.
- Lettuce"crisp lettuce leaves" points to the cupped inner leaves of a firm head lettuce, chilled and thoroughly dried, which hold the artichoke in place. Soft leaf lettuces collapse under the weight.
Salads of this kind belong to the American salad boom of the 1900s and 1910s, when cookbooks devoted entirely to the subject sold on the promise of variety for luncheon and supper tables. Artichokes were the luxury note: fresh globe artichokes were still a largely regional crop in the United States, and imported bottled hearts and bottoms were a familiar alternative, which is why the recipe orders by the bottle rather than by the pound. Onion juice, pressed from grated onion, was a common trick of the era for seasoning cold dishes without leaving visible pieces of onion on the plate.