Hot Slaw
3 quarts of finely shred cabbage. 1 pint of vinegar. 1/2 pint of water. 8 or 10 raw yolks of eggs. 1 pod of red pepper, minced. 8 ounces of butter. 1 tablespoonful of salt.
Put the cabbage in a bright sink of the steam chest, or, otherwise, in a bright saucepan placed in another of boiling water. Beat the yolks in the vinegar and water till well mixed then add them and the butter and salt and pepper to the cabbage. Stir and turn over the cabbage frequently till the sauce thickens and becomes like cream. It ought not to boil more than a minute.
The foregoing dish stands alone. It is a class by itself. It cannot go under the head of salads but must take a place among the vegetables. But it is a general favorite. There is a popular usage of calling all cooked green vegetables salads as well as garden sauce; and there is foreign authority, though not very "hefty," for styling all hot vegetables that have a vinegar dressing, like our stewed beets with sour butter sauce, en salade. But these are not dictionary definitions. The line must be drawn somewhere. All salads are cold.
Here is a place where greens are called salad. It is from Beverley's History of Virginia, and quoted by Thoreau: "The Jamestown weed or thorn-apple, being an early plant, was gathered very young for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers sent to Virginia to quell the rebellion of Bacon; and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mouths at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any Dutch droll. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed." It was right, of course, for them to boil greens when they went to quell bacon, gammon and spinach always go together; but ought not the properties of "Jimson weed" be thoroughly inquired into? People in hotels often act with extreme foolishness, but landlords never think of investigating whether there wasn't some "Jimson" in the greens boiled for dinner. The proper definitions divide salads in two classes, the artificial, elaborate, compounded and peculiar like those just passed along, and the spontaneous, natural and universal, the dinner of herbs and peace, like these remaining. These salads come in favor about the time the people who can are packing their trunks and discussing the merits and demerits of the different summer resorts. `O, what is so rare as a day in June?" --Sir Launfal. "When daisies pied, and violets blue, And lady-smacks all silver-white, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight." --Love's Laboure