Publisher's Synopsis
From the INTRODUCTION .A salad is a dish composed of green or succulent vegetables, seasoned with herbs, salt and pepper, oil, and lemon juice or vinegar. From the literature of ancient times we learn that lettuce and cress occupied a most prominent place among the dinner salads. The Hebrews ate them without dressing, simply dipping each leaf in a little salt. The Greeks, however, used oil and honey, while the Romans served lettuce with hard-boiled eggs, mixed with oil and spice, making a salad much more to the liking of the present generation. These salads, how- ever, were served as appetizers, for the first course; they were considered great luxuries, and in those days of heavy, coarse and greasy food, they no doubt were appetizing. Leeks, onions, garlic and cucumbers were used freely among the Egyptians for their late breakfasts. Garlic, the diamond of the cuisine when properly used, was very popular with the Greeks and Romans, and it is said that they used it freely for their soldiers, "to excite courage and arrest fatigue." A dinner salad of lettuce or Romaine, dressed with a French dressing and highly seasoned with garlic, is one of the most stimulating, restful foods that one can take. I do not know of any dish that so greatly shows the artistic or inventive qualities of a housewife as the daily salad. The whole dinner may be rather poorly cooked, but it comes from the kitchen, over which we do not always have supreme command; the salad is prepared at the table, and proclaims at once the knowledge of the housewife....
