SALLET
SALAT. XX.III. XVI.
Cury, 1390
Take persel, sawge, garlec, chibolles, oynouns, leek, borage, myntes, porrectes [1], fenel and ton tressis [2], rew, rosemarye, purslarye [3], laue and waische hem clene, pike hem, pluk hem small wiþ þyn [4] honde and myng hem wel with rawe oile. lay on vynegur and salt, and serue it forth.
[1] Porrectes. Fr. _Porrette_.
[2] Ton tressis. Cresses. V. Gloss.
[3] Purslarye. Purslain. [4] þyn. thine.
TO MAKE A SALLET OF ALL KINDS OF HERBES AND FLOWERS
The Good Huswifes Jewell, Thomas Dawson, 1596
http://www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/medrcp01.htm
Take your hearbes and picke them very fine into faire water, and picke your flowers by themselves, and wash them all cleane, and swing them in a strainer, and when you put them into a dish, mingle them with Cowcumbers or Lemmans payred and sliced, and scrape Suger, and put into vineger and Oyle, and throw the flowers on the top of the Sallet, and of every sorte of the aforesaid thinges, and garnish the dish about with the foresaide thinges, and hard Egges boyled and laid about the dish and upon the Sallet.
I used the redaction from here: http://www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/medrcp01.htm
The Modern Version:
1 small head of butter lettuce
1 cup watercress
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup fresh tarragon leaves
1/2 cup flower petals (you can use roses, primroses, nasturtiums, chive blossoms, violets, or calendulas, but be sure they haven’t been sprayed with insecticides)
1 cucumber, pared and sliced
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
4 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp brown sugar
Wash the lettuce, watercress, and herb leaves in cold water and pat dry or use a salad spinner; refridgerate. Rinse the flower petals in a bowl of cold water and gently pat dry; refridgerate.
Tear the lettuce into bite size pieces and combine with the watercress and herb leaves. Add the cucumber slices and toss to mix.
Mix together the oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and sugar; stir until blended. Add dressing to the salad and toss until well coated. Gently mix in the flower petals (reserving a few to garnish the salad with). Top the salad with the egg slices and garnish with the reserved flower petals.
Joan the Harper and Bruce the Cart Driver donated rose petals to the feast. These were strewn across the top of the sallet on the server plates.
I forgot to make the sallet dressing before hand. On the day of the feast I whisked together some apple cider vinegar, olive oil and some honey mustard and served the dressing in a small dish on the side of the sallet. We also used two eggs per serving platter of the hard boiled eggs that had been returned from the Marbled eggs in the previous course. It was very tasty.
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