French Chicken Salad

A fragment that assumes you have just read the two or three chicken salads above it. The whole point is the walnuts: simmered in stock, skinned, and used where a French cook would have shaved truffle.

• The hinge: skin the walnutsThe bitterness in walnuts lives almost entirely in the papery brown skin, and the tannin is what would fight a mayonnaise. Simmering loosens it so it rubs off between the fingers or with a towel; skip this step and the salad turns astringent.
• How long in the stockThe recipe gives no time, only "until tender." A few minutes at a bare simmer is generally enough to loosen the skins; judge by feel rather than by the clock. Letting them cool in the liquid will carry more chicken flavor into the nut.
• "Proceed as in preceding recipes"The fragment depends on chicken salads printed above it, which are not reproduced here; on the evidence of the ingredients it means combining the cooked chicken, celery and nuts with a dressing and serving them on lettuce. Any good mayonnaise works; a period cook would have made one by hand with oil, egg yolk and lemon or vinegar.
• Proportions, since none are givenA workable ratio is 2 cups diced cooked chicken, 1 cup diced celery, and 3/4 to 1 cup walnut pieces, bound with about 3/4 cup dressing. That serves four to six as a lunch salad.
• "English walnuts"The ordinary walnut sold today (Juglans regia), as distinct from the American black walnut, which is far more assertive and would overwhelm the dish. Use fresh nuts; stale walnuts are rancid rather than merely dull, and stock will not rescue them.
• Well-seasoned stockThe recipe asks for the stock to be seasoned, and the nuts will carry some of that seasoning into the salad. If you use commercial broth, taste before adding salt to the dressing.
• Serve cold, dress lateThe instruction to mix "when cold" matters: warm nuts will thin and break a mayonnaise. Dress within an hour of serving so the walnuts keep some bite against the celery.