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Cucumber Baskets
Select three long, regular-shaped cucumbers; cut a piece from both the stem and blossom end of each; then cut in halves crosswise. Cut two pieces from each section, leaving remaining piece in shape of basket with handle. Remove pulp and seeds, in sufficiently large pieces to cut in cubes for refilling one-half the baskets, the remaining half being filled with pieces of tomatoes. Arrange baskets on lettuce leaves, alternating the fillings, and pour over French Dressing.
This is a knife exercise more than a cooking one: a salad presented in a shell cut from the cucumber itself. The whole thing succeeds or fails on the carving, so read the shape through before you pick up a knife.
- Read the cut firstEach half becomes a basket by removing two wedges from the top, one on either side of a narrow central strip that is left standing as the handle. Score your lines with the knife tip before cutting deep, and leave the handle at least 1/4 inch thick or it will snap when the basket is lifted.
- YieldThree cucumbers give six baskets, which is a first-course salad for six. The recipe reads as a garnish but is substantial enough to serve on its own plate.
- Choose the right cucumberThe recipe specifies only long, regular-shaped cucumbers, but the shell needs a firm wall and a distinct seed core to hold up. Long English or Persian cucumbers carve cleanly but have thin skins and less structure; ordinary slicing cucumbers hold their shape best. Scrub off any wax before cutting, since the skin stays on.
- Salt and drainCucumber and tomato both weep. Salt the diced cucumber pulp and the tomato lightly, let them drain in a sieve 15 to 20 minutes, then pat dry before filling. Otherwise the dressing thins to water in the bottom of the basket.
- TomatoPeel the tomatoes (30 seconds in boiling water, then cold) and seed them, or the loose gel will pool. Cut the flesh into cubes matching the cucumber so the alternating fillings read clearly.
- French DressingThe book's French Dressing is roughly two parts oil to one part vinegar with salt and pepper, stirred or shaken to combine, with no mustard or emulsifier. Dress at the table or immediately before serving.
- TimingThe baskets can be carved and refrigerated in cold water for a few hours to stay crisp, then drained and dried. The fillings should go in no more than 20 minutes before serving; once dressed, the cucumber softens fast.
Salads in the 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book lean heavily on architecture, with cucumbers carved into baskets with handles. Fannie Farmer was writing at a moment when the service style then called Russian, in which each course arrived plated rather than in a single spread on the table, was filtering down from upper-class and restaurant dining, and a plated salad needed a shape of its own. The cucumber basket also reflects the period's fondness for the raw and the cool as a novelty course; by an old strand of cookery lore, cucumbers were regarded with suspicion as indigestible, and dressing them with oil and vinegar was said to make them wholesome. What survives of the idea today is mostly the technique, since the same carving logic underlies the cucumber cups and boats still used for canapes.