There are plenty of recipes knocking around these days. But the good ones — the classics — are relatively rare. So when a real “clip-and-save” comes along, it’s a good idea to take notice.
In the salad genre, there are several such keepers, and today I’m sharing three of them. Delicious salad concoctions that have weathered the storms of Nouvelle and California cuisines and still wow ‘em at the dinner table.
Interestingly enough, when I set out to collect these recipes, along with as much history about each one’s creation as possible, I encountered the work of another food writer, Jean Anderson, who shared her passion for the time-honored recipes in “The American Century Cookbook.”
Subtitled “The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century,” this fine collection of recipes and history is an exploration and celebration of the diversity of our nation’s cuisine.
In the salad section of Anderson’s book, I discovered that her opinions of what makes a classic a classic meshed with mine. Every one of my favorites was in this chapter.
On the theme of salads, Anderson has some solid opinions and dandy tidbits.
They certainly existed before the 20th century, she said. Case in point: The Waldorf salad of apples, celery and mayonnaise, was invented by New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel maitre d’ Oscar Tschirky in 1893.
The 1900s have indeed been the century of the salad.
Anderson reported that green salads of the early 1900s generally meant a wedge of iceberg doused with Russian or Thousand Island dressing.
And yet, as early as 1939, she added, author Irma Rombauer was promoting the importance of incorporating raw vegetables and fruits into our diets.
As Anderson observed, the 20th century gave us some wonderful classics: Caesar salad, Cobb salad, chef’s salad, celery Victor, raw spinach salad with hot bacon dressing, three-bean salad, overnight layered salad, crab Louis and tuna salad.
Here are three of my favorites. The first is probably one of the lesser-known classics among home cooks. Yet, as a food professional, it’s one of my favorites since I first encountered a variation of it during my test-kitchen days in San Francisco.
As far as I know (and Anderson doesn’t seem to have much more information than I), celery Victor may have been created by San Francisco chef Victor Hirtzler of the St. Francis Hotel in the early 1900s. At the very least, the recipe was named after him and appears in Hirtzler’s “Hotel St. Francis Cookbook” from 1919.
Its simple composure is the genius behind its success. Flavors, colors and textures mingle delightfully before your eyes and on your palate. Use it as a first-course salad for a special dinner and you won’t be sorry.
Celery Victor
3celery hearts (small celery bunches with the coarser, darker green outer stalks removed and reserved for another use), about 1 pound each
3cups bouillon (2 10-1/2 ounce cans diluted with water to measure 3 cups, or 4 beef bouillon cubes dissolved in 3 cups of hot water)
2cups vinaigrette (recipe follows)
2hard-cooked eggs, peeled and chopped
12 (canned) anchovy fillets, drained, optional
6canned pimento strips, drained
Additional garnishes: quartered tomatoes, ripe olives
Salt and pepper
Trim each celery heart to a length of about 8 inches, cutting off leafy ends of stalks and any rough edges around the base of each root. With a vegetable peeler, pare coarse strings from the outer stalks of each heart. Cut each heart in half lengthwise and tie each half with cotton string midway up from the root end to hold the pieces together.
Bring the bouillon to a boil in a 12- to 14-inch frying pan. Add the celery hearts; reduce heat, cover and simmer until tender when pierced, about 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the burner; then lift the celery from the bouillon and carefully place in a shallow 9-by-13-inch dish. Pour the prepared vinaigrette over the celery and chill in the refrigerator for several hours, or overnight, occasionally spooning dressing over the celery bundles to keep them covered in the marinade.
To serve, place 1 celery heart half on each of 6 salad plates; drizzle equally with dressing. Mound eggs onto the hearts, dividing equally. If using, crisscross 2 anchovy fillets atop each serving. Garnish each serving with some of the quartered tomatoes and ripe olives. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Vinaigrette: In a medium-sized deep-sided bowl, combine 1/3 cup wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 finely minced clove of fresh garlic, 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce and a dash of freshly ground black pepper. Whisk in 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil; mix well. Adjust seasonings.
In 1936, Robert Cobb, president of a restaurant group that owned the Hollywood Brown Derby, put together a salad from leftovers in the restaurant’s refrigerator for his pal, Sid Grauman of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. But instead of your typical “chef’s salad,” this one clicked.
The leftovers included a good-quality blue cheese, perfectly seasoned and poached chicken, avocado, bacon, hard-cooked eggs, herbs, tomatoes and a variety of salad greens.
For the presentation, he finely diced all the ingredients and arranged them attractively on top of the greens. Before serving, he tossed it all together with a fine vinaigrette.
The combination of flavors and textures was perfect, and a classic was born.
Since its creation, variations have abounded. But in my mind, the successful alterations are strictly architectural — nobody has fiddled with the ingredients and come up with an improvement.
In fact, my only favorite spin-off was created in a San Francisco restaurant, MacArthur Park, back in the early 1970s. Individual salads were build up layer by delectable layer in porcelain souffle bowls and crowned with a topping of Roquefort dressing. The result was a delightful stratification of colors and flavors.
Cobb salad
2poached chicken breast halves, finely diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1fresh lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
1/2head firm iceberg lettuce, finely diced
1small head chicory (or other coarse, curly-leafed salad green), finely diced
1/2head romaine, finely diced
1medium bunch watercress, coarsely chopped to yield 1 cup of leaves and tender stems
1avocado
6slices crispy cooked bacon, crumbled
3hard-cooked eggs, peeled and diced
2tablespoons minced fresh chives or green onions
4ounces good-quality blue cheese
2medium-sized ripe, firm tomatoes, finely diced
About 1 cup of a good vinaigrette (see vinaigrette used for celery Victor recipe)
Toss the chicken in a small bowl with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a drizzling of fresh lemon juice and olive oil; cover and refrigerate.
Choose a big salad bowl with a wide surface. Place the iceberg lettuce, chicory, romaine and watercress in the bowl, tossing to combine them.
Halve the avocado, peel and dice it into 1/4-inch pieces. Turn it into a small bowl and sprinkle with a little salad and a few drops of the fresh lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.
When ready to serve: Toss the greens with about 1/3 cup of the vinaigrette. Arrange the other ingredients in strips across the top of the greens. From left to right, lay on the avocado, bacon pieces, hard-cooked eggs, green onion, blue cheese and the tomatoes.
Bring the salad to the table, then toss with additional vinaigrette.
Makes 4 servings.
Note: If you wish to arrange the salad in advance, do not toss the greens with any of the vinaigrette before bringing it to the table or the greens will become limp. Instead, simply cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate, then toss with the vinaigrette at the table.
Variations: You could take your cue from the San Francisco restaurant, MacArthur Park, and layer the salad in individual souffle dishes. Each guest may then toss his or her own — or not — as desired.
Anderson believes that this recipe might have sprung from a recipe for dandelion salad, German fashion, which was published in 1902 in “Mrs. Rover’s New Cookbook,” by Sarah Tyson Rorer of Philadelphia.
Based on Anderson’s extensive research, however, it seems to have taken several decades for a cook to make the leap from dandelions to raw spinach, and from a cold bacon dressing to a hot one.
Here’s Anderson’s own recipe, which she admits is a little spicier than some of the original classics she encountered during her research.
Spinach salad with hot bacon dressing
1pound tender young spinach, trimmed of coarse stems
6slices bacon, snipped crosswise into julienne strips before cooking
4green onions, trimmed, washed and thinly sliced
1clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1tablespoon ketchup
1/2cup cider or red wine vinegar
1/2teaspoon salt
1/4teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Wash spinach well in several changes of cold water, spin dry, then bundle in paper towels and refrigerate. When ready to proceed, mound spinach in a large, heat-proof salad bowl.
Brown the bacon in a large heavy skillet over moderate heat for 3 to 5 minutes, until golden and crispy. Drain the crisp brown bacon bits on paper towels and set aside.
Add green onions and garlic to the bacon drippings and saute over low heat for about 2 minutes, until limp. Whisk in the ketchup, vinegar, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Let the dressing sit for about 2 minutes, just so it’s not boiling-hot. Pour the warm dressing over the spinach leaves, along with the bacon pieces and toss well to mix. Serve at once.
Makes 4 servings.
Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a Corvallis, Oregon, food writer, cookbook author and artist. Readers can contact her by e-mail at janrd@proaxis.com
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