The Accomplisht Cook

 

Section V.

The best way of making all manner of Sallets

To make a grand Sallet of divers Compounds.
Take a cold roast capon and cut it into thin slices square and small, (or any other roast meat as chicken, mutton, veal, or neats tongue) mingle with it a little minced taragon and an onion, then mince lettice as small as the capon, mingle all together, and lay it in the middle of a clean scoured dish. Then lay capers by themselves, olives by themselves, samphire by it self, broom buds, pickled mushrooms, pickled oysters, lemon, orange, raisins, almonds, blue-figs, Virginia Potato, caperons, crucifix pease, and the like, more or less, as occasion serves, lay them by themselves in the dish round the meat in partitions. Then garnish the dish sides with quarters of oranges, or lemons, or in slices, oyl and vinegar beaten together, and poured on it over all. On fish days, a roast, broil’d, or boil’d pike boned, and being cold, slice it as abovesaid.

Another way for a grand Sallet.
Take the buds of all good sallet herbs, capers, dates, raisins, almonds, currans, figs, orangado. Then first of all lay it in a large dish, the herbs being finely picked and washed, swing them in a clean napkin; then lay the other materials round the dish, and amongst the herbs some of all the aforesaid fruits, some fine sugar, and on the top slic’t lemon, and eggs scarse hard cut in halves, and laid round the side of the dish, and scrape sugar over all; or you may lay every fruit in partitions several.

Otherways. Dish first round the centre slic’t figs, then currans, capers, almonds, and raisins together; next beyond that, olives, beets, cabbidge-lettice, cucumbers, or slic’t lemon carved; then oyl and vinegar beaten together, the beast oyl you can get, and sugar or none, as you please; garnish the brims of the dish with orangado, slic’t lemon jagged, olives stuck with slic’t almonds, sugar or none.

Another grand Sallet.
Take all manner of knots of buds of sallet herbs, buds of pot-herbs, or any green herbs, as sage, mint, balm, burnet, violet-leaves, red coleworts streaked of divers fine colours, lettice, any flowers, blanched almonds, blue figs, raisins of the sun, currans, capers, olives; then dish the sallet in a heap or pile, being mixed with some of the fruits, and all finely washed and swung in a napkin, then about the centre lay first slic’t figs, next capers and currans, then almonds and raisins, next olives, and lastly either jagged beats, jagged lemons, jagged cucumbers, or cabbidge lettice in quarters, good oyl and wine vinegar, sugar or none.

Otherways. The youngest and smallest leaves of spinage, the smallest also of sorrel, well washed currans, and red beets round the centre being finely carved, oyl and vinegar, and the dish garnished with lemon and beets.

Other Grand Sallets.
Take green purslain and pick it leaf by leaf, wash it and swing it in a napkin, then being disht in a fair clean dish, and finely piled up in a heap in the midst of it lay round about the centre of the sallet pickled capers, currans, and raisins of the sun, washed, pickled, mingled, and laid round it: about them some carved cucumbers in slices or halves, and laid round also. Then garnish the dish brims with borage, or clove jelly-flowers. Or otherways with jagged cucumber-peels, olives, capers, and raisins of the sun, then the best sallet-oyl and wine-vinegar.

Other Grand Sallets.
All sorts of good herbs, the little leaves of red sage, the smallest leaves of sorrel, and the leaves of parsley pickt very small, the youngest and smallest leaves of spinage, some leaves of burnet, the smallest leaves of lettice, white endive and charvel all finely pick’t and washed, and swung in a strainer or clean napkin, and well drained from the water; then dish it in a clean scowred dish, and about the centre capers, currans, olives, lemons carved and slic’t, boil’d beet-roots carved and slic’t, and dished round also with good oyl and vinegar.

A good Sallet otherways.
Take corn-sallet, rampons, Alexander-buds, pickled mushrooms, and make a sallet of them, then lay the corn sallet through the middle of the dish from side to side, and on the other side rampons, then Alexander-buds, and in the other four quarter of mushrooms, salt, over all, and put good oyl and vinegar to it.

Other grand Sallet.
Take the tenderest, smallest, and youngest ellicksander-buds, and small sallet, or young lettice mingled together, being washed and pickled, with some capers. Pile it or lay it flat in a dish, first lay about the centre, olives, capers, currans, and about those carved oranges and lemons, or in a cross partition-ways, and salt, run oyl and vinegar over all.

Otherways. Boil’d parsnips in quarters laid round the dish, and in the midst some small sallet, or water cresses finely washed and picked, on the water-cresses some little small lettice finely picked and washed also, and some elicksander-buds in halves, and some in quarters, and between the quarters of the parsnips, some small lettice, some water-cresses and elicksander-buds, oyl and vinegar, and round the dish some slices of parsnips.

Another grand Sallet.
Take small sallet of all good sallet herbs, then mince some white cabbidge leaves, or striked cole-worts, mingle them among the small sallet, or some lilly-flowers slit with a pin; then first lay some minced cabbidge in a clean scowred dish, and the minced sallet round about it; then some well washed and picked capers, currans, olives, or none; then about the rest, a round of boild red beets, oranges, or lemons carved. For the garnish of the brim of the dish, boild colliflowers, carved lemons, beets, and capers.

Sallet of Scurvy grass.
Being finely pick’t short, well soak’t in clean water, and swung dry, dish it round in a fine clean dish, with capers and currans about it, carved lemon and orange round that, and eggs upon the centre not boil’d too hard, and parted in halves, then oyl and vinegar; over all scraping sugar, and trim the brim of the dish.

A grand Sallet of Alexander-buds.
Take large Alexander-buds, and boil them in fair water after they be cleansed and washed, but first let the water boil, then put them in, and being boil’d, drain them on a dish bottom or in a cullender; then have boil’d capers and currans, and lay them in the midst of a clean scowred dish, the buds parted in two with a sharp knife, and laid round about upright, or one half on one side, and the other against it on the other side, so also carved lemon, scrape on sugar, and serve it with good oyl and wine vinegar.

Other grand Sallet of Watercresses.
Being finely picked, washed and laid in the middle of a clean dish with slic’t oranges and lemons finely carved one against the other, in partitions or round the dish, with some Alexander-buds boil’d or raw, currans, pers, oyl, and vinegar, sugar, or none.

A grand Sallet of pickled capers.
Pickled capers and currans basted and boil’d together, disht in the middle of a clean dish, with red beets boil’d and jagged, and dish’t round the capers and currans, as also jagg’d lemon, and serve it with oyl and vinegar.

To pickle Samphire, Broom-buds, Kitkeys, Crucifix Pease, Purslane, or the like.
Take Samphire, and pick the branches from the dead leaves or straws, then lay it in a pot or barrel, & make a strong brine of white or bay-salt, in the boiling scum it clean; being boil’d and cold put it to the samphire, cover it and keep it for all the year, and when you have any occasion to use it, take and boil it in fair water, but first let the water boil before you put it in, being boiled and become green, let it cool, then take it out of the water, and put it in a little bain or double viol with a broad mouth, put strong wine vinegar to it, close it up close and keep it.

Otherways. Put samphire in a brass pot that will contain it, and put to it as much wine-vinegar as water, but no salt; set it over a charcoal-fire, cover it close, and boil it till it become green, then put it up in a barrell with wine-vinegar close on the head, and keep it for use.

To pickle Cucumbers.
Pickle them with salt, vinegar, whole pepper, dill-seed, some of the stalks cut, charnell, fair water, and some sicamore-leaves, and barrel them up close in a barrel.

Pickled Quinces the best way.

1. Take quinces not cored nor pared, boil them in fair water not too tender, and put them in a barrel, fill it up with their liquor, and close on the head.

2. Pare them and boil them with white-wine, whole cloves, cinamon, and slic’t ginger, barrel them up and keep them.

3. In the juyce of sweet apples, not cored, but wiped, and put up raw.

4. In white-wine barrel’d up raw.

5. Being pared and cored, boil them up in sweet-wort and sugar, keep them in a glazed pipkin close covered.

6. Core them and save the cores, cut some of the crab-quinces, and boil them after the quinces be parboil’d & 164 taken up; then boil the cores, and some of the crab-quinces in quarters, the liquor being boild strain it thorow a strainer, put it in a barrel with the quinces, and close up the barrel.

To pickle Lemon.
Boil them in water and salt, and put them up with white-wine.

To pickle any kind of Flowers.
Put them into a gally-pot or double glass, with as much sugar as they weigh, fill them up with wine vinegar; to a pint of vinegar a pound of sugar, and a pound of flowers; so keep them for sallets or boild meats in a double glass covered over with a blade and leather.

To pickle Capers, Gooseberries, Barberries, red and white Currans.
Pick them and put them in the juyce of crab-cherries, grape-verjuyce, or other verjuyce, and then barel them up.

To Candy Flowers for Sallets, as Violets, Cowslips, Clove-gilliflowers, Roses, Primroses, Borrage, Bugloss, &c.
Take weight for weight of sugar candy, or double refined sugar, being beaten fine, searsed, and put in a silver dish with rose-water, set them over a charecoal fire, and stir them with a silver spoon till they be candied, or boil them in a Candy sirrup height in a dish or skillet, keep them in a dry place for your use, and when you use them for sallets, put a little wine-vinegar to them, and dish them.

For the compounding and candying the foresaid pickled and candied Sallets.
Though they may be served simply of themselves, and are both good and dainty, yet for better curiosity and the finer ordering of a table, you may thus use them. First, if you would set forth a red flower that you know or have seen, you shall take the pot of preserv’d gilliflowers, and suiting the colours answerable to the flower, you shall proportion it forth, and lay the shape of a flower with a purslane stalk, make the stalk of the flower, and the dimensions of the leaves and branches with thin slices of cucumbers, make the leaves in true proportion jagged or otherways, and thus you may set forth some blown some in the bud, and some half blown, which will be very pretty and curious; if yellow, set it forth with cowslip or primroses; if blue take violets or borrage; and thus of any flowers.