Home › Salads › Sidney Smith's Winter Salad
Sidney Smith's Winter Salad
Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve, Unwonted softness to the salad give; Of mordant mustard add a single spoon- Distrust the condiment which bites too soon; But deem it not, though made of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt; Three times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And once with vinegar procured from town.
True flavor needs it, and your poet begs The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And, half-suspected, animate the whole; And lastly, on the favored compound toss A magic tea-spoon of anchovy sauce.
Then, though green turtle fail, though venison 's tough, Though ham and turkey are not boiled enough, Serenely full, the epicure shall say, "Fate can not harm me--I have dined to day."
The verse is a genuine working formula for a boiled-potato-and-egg dressing, in the manner of an English salad cream rather than a modern vinaigrette. Read it as a list and it comes out at roughly a cup of dressing.
- The ingredient list, plainlyTwo large potatoes (necessarily cooked) pressed through a sieve; one spoon of prepared mustard; a "double quantity" of salt, i.e. two spoons; three spoons olive oil; one spoon vinegar; the mashed yolks of two well-boiled eggs; finely minced onion; one teaspoon anchovy sauce. "Spoon" is undefined, but since the anchovy sauce alone is specified as a tea-spoon, a tablespoon is the likely reading.
- Halve the saltTwo tablespoons will make the bowl inedible. Start with a scant teaspoon and adjust at the end, after the anchovy has gone in.
- Oil of LuccaTuscan olive oil from Lucca was the standard fine table oil in nineteenth-century English and American groceries, valued for being mild and sweet rather than peppery. Any good, non-bitter extra-virgin oil stands in; a harsh oil fights the mustard.
- Mordant mustardMost likely made mustard rather than dry powder, though the verse does not say. "Distrust the condiment which bites too soon" is usually read as a warning against raw, over-sharp mustard. Use a smooth prepared mustard, or mix powder with water and let it stand before adding.
- Anchovy sauceA thin bottled anchovy condiment, closer to Worcestershire than to modern anchovy paste. If using paste, start with half a teaspoon; if using Worcestershire, a full teaspoon works but brings extra vinegar with it.
- The potato is the thickenerIt works best if the potato is riced or sieved while still warm and lump-free — plausibly the "unwonted softness." A cold, gluey potato takes up the oil poorly.
- Order of workingThe verse gives no order. A workable sequence: mash the yolks with the mustard and salt, beat in the sieved potato, add the oil in a slow stream, and the vinegar last.
- Onion, half-suspected"Onion atoms" means grated or very finely minced, a teaspoon at most, so it perfumes rather than announces itself. A little of the grated onion's juice squeezed in gives the same effect with no texture.
- Yield and useNearer two cups once the potatoes are counted, enough to dress a large bowl of sturdy winter leaves. It is thick; loosen with a spoon of water or cream if it needs to coat rather than clot.