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Cucumber Salad (Following salad makes a very)
The following salad makes a very attractive dish and is good: Peel the cucumbers, cut them into halves lengthwise, with a teaspoon take out the seeds and soft part. Lay the shells in ice water while the filling is being prepared; peel two tomatoes, remove the seeds and chop the solid part, with one slice of onion and a few sprigs of parsley; season with salt, cayenne pepper; wipe the cucumbers with a soft cloth and lay them slantingly on a bed of lettuce on an oval platter; place thin slices of lemon around on the lettuce; mix equal parts of oil and lemon juice together and put three teaspoonfuls over the filling of each cucumber; scatter lightly over the whole two chopped unpeeled radishes and parsley. Serve very cold.
A stuffed raw cucumber salad that depends almost entirely on temperature and drainage. Nothing here is difficult; everything here goes soft if it sits.
- Choose the right cucumberThe recipe does not say what kind of cucumber to use, but it needs one that hollows out into a firm shell. English or Persian cucumbers are thinner-walled and tend to collapse under filling; a standard American slicing cucumber, seeded deeply, holds its shape better.
- Drain the tomatoChopped tomato throws water within minutes and will flood the cucumber shells. Salt the chopped flesh, let it sit in a sieve for ten minutes, then press lightly before filling.
- "One slice of onion"That means a single thin round from a mild onion, minced fine — a teaspoon or two, depending on the size of the onion. It is a seasoning, not a component.
- The dressing ratioEqual parts oil and lemon juice is much sharper than a modern 3:1 vinaigrette. It works here because the cucumber and tomato are watery and bland, but taste it before spooning on the full three teaspoons per shell.
- CayenneThe recipe gives no quantity. Treat it as background heat rather than noticeable spice: start with an eighth of a teaspoon for the whole filling and adjust.
- Ice water and the wipeSoaking the shells crisps them, and wiping them dry matters — a wet shell repels the oil dressing and slides on the lettuce. A soft cloth or paper towel, inside and out.
- Assemble lastFill and dress within a few minutes of serving. Held longer, the shells weep, the radish loses its bite and the lettuce bed goes limp.
- YieldThe recipe does not say how many cucumbers; two tomatoes' worth of filling suits about two cucumbers, halved, giving four shells — a first course for four, or a side for two.
Salads built around a hollowed vegetable were a staple of turn-of-the-century American entertaining, when the salad course had shifted from a plain dressed green to something meant to be looked at as much as eaten. Cookbooks of the 1890s and 1900s are full of these constructions: tomatoes filled with cucumber, cucumbers filled with tomato, peppers filled with cheese, all arranged on lettuce with a garnish scattered over the platter. The oil-and-lemon dressing is notable for what it is not — home-made mayonnaise and boiled dressings dominate the salad chapters of this era, and a plain acid-and-oil mixture marks this as the lighter, more French-leaning end of the repertoire.