MAYONNAISE, VINAIGRETTES, &c.
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cold and firm, when it may be turned out, and served
with the fish fillets arranged round it, with little heaps
of chopped aspic.
The space at my disposal is far too restricted to allow
of anything like an exhaustive description of the (liter-
ally) hundreds of salads, even of fish, which may be
met with, still the above will give some idea of how
to procure some change from the everlasting, and often
“strong,” lobster or salmon mayonnaise. But the
salad-maker should remember that freshness and
dainty simplicity are the keynotes of success in this
matter. People are so anxious to make their salads
“good,” as they term it, that they cram every kind
of ingredient and a heterogeneous assortment of spices
and sauces into the salad bowl, till nothing but the
name on the menu enables one to guess the foundation
of the dish before one. As with everything else, each
salad should have its own distinct and recognisable
flavour; enhanced maybe, but never overpowered,
by judiciously chosen adjuncts. Cold boiled British
salmon, for instance, calls aloud for lemon juice and
perhaps a few capers, though connoisseurs are still
divided whether a vinaigrette should accompany it,
or a mayonnaise, many averring the latter to be too
strong a condiment for the native fish, though welcome
with Dutch or frozen fish. Again, orange (especially
Seville orange) juice and even a little of the pulp care-
fully freed from pith and pips, is held a great addition
to any white fish salad, especially of soles, lemon or
otherwise, and plaice. Smelts go well with tomato
and cucumber (few people appear to know how good
hot tomato sauce is with fried smelts by the way);
mackerel have most flavour if dished with tomato
mayonnaise, and some finely-minced fennel; cold boiled