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Cucumbers
French dressing.
Method. -Flake one pound of cooked halibut while hot, and marinate with the oil, lemon juice, onion juice, salt and pepper. When cold drain and mix with the pimentos, shredded, after cutting from the same a few star-shaped or other fanciful figures. Arrange heart leaves of lettuce in an upright position in the centre of a serving-dish, the fish and pimentos around the lettuce, and, around these, one large or two small cucumbers, cut in small cubes and mixed with French dressing.
With salmon use capers instead of pimentos. Use enough dressing to moisten the cucumbers thoroughly.
This is a composed fish salad rather than a dressing recipe; the ingredient list it belonged to has been separated from the method, so a few quantities have to be inferred.
- Missing ingredient listThe method refers to "the oil, lemon juice, onion juice, salt and pepper" and "the pimentos" without amounts. For one pound of fish, figure roughly 1/4 cup oil to 2 tablespoons lemon juice, a teaspoon of onion juice, and two whole canned pimentos.
- Marinate while hotThe recipe is explicit: flake the halibut while hot and dress it then, draining only when cold. Warm fish is generally held to take up dressing more readily than chilled fish.
- Onion juiceA standard period ingredient made by grating a halved onion on the fine side of a box grater and using the liquid that collects. It gives onion flavour without visible pieces.
- Cooking the halibutPoach or steam a 1 lb piece until it just flakes, about 10 minutes at the thickest point for a 1-inch steak. Overcooked halibut turns dry and cottony and will not hold together in flakes.
- PimentosCanned sweet red peppers, packed whole or in halves, still sold in jars. Drain and pat dry before shredding, or the salad goes watery.
- CucumbersThe recipe simply says to cut them in small cubes. Cucumbers of this sort are usually peeled and seeded if the skin is tough or the seeds large; an English or Persian cucumber needs neither. Salting the cubes for 10 minutes and draining will help them stay crisp under the dressing.
- French dressingIn this era the term means a simple oil-and-lemon or oil-and-vinegar mixture whisked to order, not the sweet orange bottled product. Make it fresh and expect it to separate.
- YieldOne pound of fish plus cucumber serves four as a first course or lunch salad. Assemble no more than an hour ahead, as the cucumber weeps.
Cold moulded and composed fish salads were a fixture of American hostess cookery around 1900, when reliable ice boxes made chilled food a mark of a well-run kitchen and canned pimentos gave cooks a bright red garnish that held its colour. The instruction to cut "star-shaped or other fanciful figures" from the pimento is entirely of its moment: salad books of the period treated the serving dish as something to be built, with lettuce hearts stood upright as a centrepiece and each element arranged in concentric rings. Halibut was among the firm white fish used for salads because it flakes into large clean pieces; the note to swap capers for pimento with salmon shows the same skeleton being reused.