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Sardine and Egg Salad
2 Large Sardines Lettuce Leaves Hard Boiled Egg Mayonnaise Olives Place fish on lettuce leaves, slice over the hard boiled egg and serve with a few ripe olives. This is for one person.
An assembly salad rather than a cooked dish, and the only things that need translating are the fish and the dressing.
- "2 large sardines"Almost certainly tinned sardines in oil, which is what an American household recipe of this kind would have meant; tins of the period often held larger fish than the small brisling common today. Two of the biggest sardines in a modern tin makes a thin serving, so three or four may suit better.
- Drain and dry the fishOil-packed sardines carry a lot of liquid that will slick the lettuce and thin the mayonnaise. Lift them out and blot on paper before they touch the leaves.
- The mayonnaiseThe recipe lists it but never says where it goes. A spoonful set beside or over the fish suits the arrangement better than tossing it through; a bought mayonnaise is fine, and a little lemon juice stirred in cuts the oiliness of the sardines.
- Ripe olives"Ripe" simply means black rather than green. Canned California ripe olives, mild and firm, were being commercialised around this period and may be what is meant; salt-cured black olives sold loose will work but will dominate the plate.
- LettuceWhole leaves rather than shredded are implied, since the fish is laid on them; cup-shaped leaves from an iceberg or butter head hold the arrangement best.
- EggSlice the hard-boiled egg thin and lay it over the fish rather than chopping it. A wet knife or an egg slicer keeps the yolk from crumbling.
- YieldThe original says it plainly: one serving. Multiply by the number at table and plate individually rather than building it in a bowl.
The Bride's Cook Book belongs to a genre of small volumes aimed at a new householder with a modest kitchen and, often, no cook — hence a salad that requires nothing but a tin opener, a boiled egg and a jar of mayonnaise. Canned sardines were among the more reliable early canned foods, and imported French and Norwegian brands were fixtures of the American pantry, appearing in luncheon salads, sandwiches and "made dishes" for unexpected guests. The canned ripe olive, commercialised in California in roughly the same era, filled a similar role: a shelf-stable relish that made a plain plate look composed. Recipes written for a single person are worth noticing too — they suit the light midday luncheon that household books of the period treated as a distinct meal.