Boulli Salad
This salad is much used in France and is prepared from the meat used in making soups. It is cooked in one piece instead of being cut fine, and only lacks the flavor which is supplied by the ingredients of the salad. Cut into small thin strips or slices one pound of cold boiled beef and marinate it with a French dressing, setting it aside in a cold place for a couple of hours. Arrange it on blanched lettuce leaves, pour a second lot of French dressing over it and garnish with chopped parsley, celery, chives or any chopped herbs or cooked vegetables you may happen to have. Cold boiled white beans are also frequently served in the dish.
A frugal use for the beef left over from making stock, and it holds up well provided the meat is sliced correctly and the dressing is generous.
- Slice across the grainLong-simmered beef falls apart along the grain into dry fibers. Cut thin slices across the grain, then into strips no wider than a finger, so the marinade has surfaces to work on rather than shreds.
- "French dressing" in 1900"French dressing" in period usage -- Not the sweet orange bottled dressing sold under that name today. It means a plain vinaigrette: roughly three parts oil to one part vinegar, salt and pepper, whisked or shaken. About 1/2 cup total for a pound of beef, split between the two applications.
- "Blanched lettuce leaves"This means the pale, tender inner leaves of a head that has been shielded from light, not lettuce dipped in boiling water. Use the hearts of romaine or butterhead.
- Marinate cold"A cold place" was the larder or icebox. Refrigerate the dressed beef, and take it out twenty minutes before serving so the oil is not congealed.
- Season hardMeat boiled for stock has surrendered most of its flavor to the pot; the recipe says as much. It will take more salt, pepper and vinegar than you expect, and a little mustard in the dressing is in keeping.
- The beansCold cooked white beans (a can of cannellini, drained and rinsed, works) should be dressed separately with a spoonful of the vinaigrette before going into the dish, or they taste flat next to the beef.
- YieldA pound of beef with lettuce and garnishes serves four as a lunch dish, two as a main course.
Boulli is an anglicized spelling of the French bouilli, the beef simmered to make the broth of a pot-au-feu nFrench household cooking. The broth was served first, the meat afterward, and what remained was traditionally turned into a salad of exactly this kind, often called salade de boeuf or boeuf en salade. Its appearance in an American cookbook reflects two things at once: the prestige of French technique in period cookery writing, and the era's steady insistence on thrift. The garnish list, which ends by inviting whatever herbs or cooked vegetables happen to be on hand, is the honest signature of a leftovers dish.