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Peach-and-Almond Salad
Blanch the almonds and cut in thin slices. Chill the peaches, peel, and cut in slices; use one-fifth as much in bulk of sliced nuts as sliced peaches.
A two-sentence recipe that assumes you already know what a fruit salad of the period looked like on the plate. The only real measurement is a ratio, and it is by volume, not weight.
- The ratioOne-fifth as much sliced almonds as sliced peaches, measured by bulk. Sliced almonds are light, so a quart of sliced peaches (four or five medium) takes only a scant cup of nuts — roughly 2 to 2 1/2 ounces by weight.
- Blanching almondsWhole raw almonds, covered with boiling water for a minute, then drained; the skins slip off between finger and thumb. Slice them while still damp and soft or they shatter. Packaged sliced almonds are a fair substitute, though they are cut thinner and go limp faster in fruit juice.
- Chill before peelingThis is the instruction that matters. Cold peaches hold their shape under the knife and shed less juice, so the slices stay distinct instead of collapsing into a puree. Freestone peaches at full ripeness peel with a paring knife; firmer fruit is easier if you dip it in boiling water for 30 seconds and slip the skin.
- BrowningCut peaches discolour within minutes. A spoonful of lemon juice tossed through the slices holds the colour and does no harm to the flavour; assembling at the last moment does the same job, though the recipe itself gives no instruction about timing.
- The missing dressingThe recipe specifies no dressing. A French dressing made with lemon rather than vinegar, a cooked or boiled dressing thinned with cream, or lightly sweetened whipped cream would all suit it. Dress it at the table, not in advance.
- ServingFruit salads of this period were commonly served in individual portions on a lettuce or romaine leaf in a small dish. Four or five medium peaches with a scant cup of almonds makes four to six salad-course servings.
Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties belongs to the early-1900s American vogue for the salad course, when the Boston Cooking School circle and the magazines around it were promoting fruit salads as a light, fashionable alternative to heavy composed dishes of meat and mayonnaise. Recipes of this kind are barely recipes at all — they are proportions, on the assumption that the cook will choose a dressing. The pairing of stone fruit with almonds is older than the book and not an invention of it: peaches and almonds are close botanical relatives, both in the genus Prunus. Blanching and slicing your own almonds was routine domestic work at the time, and the instruction is given first.