Shrimp Salad
To 1 can of shrimps add 1 teacup chopped celery, 3 hard boiled eggs, a few English walnut meats and pour mayonnaise dressing over all just before serving. Rinse shrimps in ice water before using and be sure to keep all thoroughly chilled; serve on lettuce leaf.
A salad that depends almost entirely on temperature and on the quality of the shrimp, since there is nothing to cook. Two of the measurements need translating and the canned shrimp needs handling.
- A teacupRoughly 3/4 cup in period usage, though teacups varied; anywhere from 3/4 to a full cup of chopped celery will balance a standard can of shrimp. Cut the celery fine enough that it distributes rather than dominates.
- One can of shrimpsPeriod canned shrimp came in a variety of pack sizes, so there is no single equivalent; a modern can runs roughly 4 to 6 oz drained, so use one or two depending on size. Frozen cooked small shrimp, thawed, work at least as well.
- Why the ice-water rinseCanned shrimp carry a metallic, briny liquor and often a faint ammoniacal edge. A rinse in ice water removes it and firms the flesh at the same time — this is the instruction that decides whether the salad tastes fresh or tinned.
- Check for the veinCanned shrimp were not always deveined. Run a thumbnail along the back and lift out anything gritty before dressing.
- Dress at the last minuteThe recipe is emphatic about pouring the mayonnaise on just before serving, and it is right: shrimp and celery both weep, and a salad dressed early goes slack and watery.
- Walnuts"English walnut meats" simply means the common walnut as opposed to the native black walnut, which is far more assertive. A small handful, broken rather than chopped, is enough; toasting them briefly is a modern improvement the original does not ask for.
- MayonnaisePeriod mayonnaise was made at home from raw yolks, and many period formulas were thicker and included mustard. If you use commercial mayonnaise, loosen it with a little lemon juice and add salt and pepper, which the recipe appears to assume are in the dressing already.
- YieldAbout four servings as a first course, on individual lettuce leaves. Keep the mixture and the plates cold; this was designed as a cold-larder dish and it falls apart at room temperature.
Shrimp salad of this kind belongs to the era when canned seafood became a reliable pantry item for inland American households — Gulf and Atlantic shrimp were being canned commercially from the later nineteenth century, and a can on the shelf meant a company dish could be assembled in minutes without access to a coast. The formula itself is the standard American "salad" pattern of the period: a protein, chopped celery for crunch, hard-boiled egg for body, nuts for a touch of luxury, and mayonnaise binding it all, served on a lettuce leaf that functioned as much as a plate liner as a vegetable. Community and promotional cookbooks carried many variations on the same skeleton, swapping in chicken, salmon, lobster or veal. The insistence on ice water and thorough chilling is a reminder that chilling was likely a matter of an icebox and a block of ice, and that a cold salad was something a cook had to work at.