A Grand Sallat of Divers Compounds

SOURCE: In The English Housewife, p. 121, Markham says to start a feast with a grand sallat, but he doesn't give any description other than to say that it is compound, so I used the Robert May recipe published in Great Cooks and their Recipes, p. 80, as a basis. Modern version by Mathilde Eschenbach.
ORIGINAL:
Gervase Markham, The English Housewife, 1631.
Ordering of great feasts and proportion of expense. ...she shall first marshal her sallats, delivering the grand sallat first, which is evermore compound ...
A Grand Sallat of Divers Compounds, Robert May, The Accomplisht Cook, 1685.
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 itself, 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.
INGREDIENTS: DIRECTIONS:
  1. Arrange ingredients on platter in an attractive pattern. This will depend on the size and shape of the serving platter, and the relative quantities of the ingredients. Possibilities would be concentric circles, sectors of a circle, stripes, etc.
[return to home page]