As regards the quantities of salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, and fine herbs, it is impossible to be precise, the delicacy of the human palate varies so widely, according to the climate and according to national and individual habits. It will always be best to gauge the seasoning by the most delicate palate at table. In short, the quantities of salt, pepper, and vinegar will vary greatly according to individual tastes, and also according to the strength of the salt, the pepper, and particularly of the vinegar. To my mind, any manufactured vinegar is too strong for fine lettuce salad, and, instead of vinegar, I use lemon-juice. Indeed, for all uncooked salads I prefer lemon-juice to vinegar; and unless one can make sure of obtaining real wine vinegar, I should certainly use lemon-juice for all salad dressing. Lemon-juice is the most delicate and deliciously perfumed acid that Nature has given the cook. As for the pepper, never use the powdered pepper that you buy at the grocer's, and which has generally lost its flavor before it reaches the depths of the pepper-castor. The only pepper worthy to titillate the papillae of a civilized man is that ground out of the pepper-corn, at the moment of use, in a little hand-mill. Here, again, we must beware of the inventions of the silversmiths, none of which are so practical and handy as the simple wooden mill.

In describing the process of dressing a lettuce salad I mixed the salt and pepper in vinegar and poured the oil on last of all. This rule is not absolute. Some mix the pepper and salt in oil, but this, I am convinced, is a mistake, because the salt does not readily dissolve in oil, and the distribution of the condiments is less complete. But as regards oil first or vinegar first, the choice is difficult. In point of fact, a salad must always be a compromise: wherever a leaf is smeared over with oil the vinegar will not rest, and wherever the vinegar rests on a leaf the oil will not stay. If you pour your vinegar on first the salad will have a sharper and more piquant taste; if you apply the oil first the dressing will be more delicate.

In order to make a good lettuce salad you require good lettuce, good salt, good pepper, good vinegar or lemon-juice, and olive oil of the best quality; and then if you do not pay careful attention to every detail of the preparation, dressing, and mixing, your salad will not be a success. Good materials, good methods, intelligence, and attention are as necessary in salad-making as in any other branch of the cook's art.

Note also that in cookery you cannot abbreviate the processes; for instance, I have read, in a cook-book written by an Anglo-Saxon woman, that the best way to operate is "to mix the pepper and salt, the oil, the chopped chives, and the vinegar all together, and when well mingled to pour the mixture over the salad, or place the salad over it and mix all together." This is rank heresy. The mixture thus produced would be a viscous liquid, a sort of half-made mayonnaise, utterly different in consistency and taste from the distribution of oil and vinegar each separately.

For convenience it may be noted that a salad may be oiled an hour or more before it is served. If you have plenty of hands in the kitchen you may have each leaf oiled separately with a brush, which is a very ideal way of proceeding. Beware, however, of putting salt on the salad before it is served, or vinegar either; the salt would draw all the water out of the salad and leave it limp and flimsy, while the acid would eat into the leaves and reduce them to a pulpy state.

A salad of Romaine lettuce is so delicate that it admits of no mixtures or garnishings. A salad of ordinary cabbage lettuce may be garnished with hard-boiled eggs, shelled and cut in four, also with olives.

Tarragon vinegar, that is vinegar in which a branch of tarragon is left to soak, may be used preferably to the fresh leaves of tarragon for salad-dressing.

Vinegar for dressing salads may be prepared also as follows: In the bottom of an earthen pitcher put a handful of tarragon, half as much garden-cress, half as much chervil, some fresh pimpernel leaves, and one clove of garlic. Over this pour one gallon of vinegar, let it infuse a week, clarify, and bottle for use.

In preparing a salad of curly chicory, beware of allowing the leaves to stand in water, otherwise they will become hard ; the same remark applies to celery.

For seasoning a salad of curly chicory, proceed in the manner above described for the usual French dressing, omitting only the chives, but before turning the salad, put in a ckapon, a Gascony capon as it is called. This is a small crust of bread about an inch square, rubbed over with garlic. During the mixing, this crust, impregnated with the perfume of garlic, but without its rankness, comes into light contact with every leaf, and communicates to the whole a slight aroma of the onion, so dear to the Gascons, and to all Latin men. You may or may not like this aroma, but, in any case do not forget the chapon, the perfumed crust, as a means of communicating flavors very lightly.

In cookery we learn the eternal principles, and each one composes according as he has more or less imagination. I have explained the way of preparing and dressing a lettuce salad with oil and vinegar in the French style. This description will serve as a type and basis, which may be applied to various simple and compound salads of uncooked, and also of cooked vegetables, some of which I briefly note.

One of the finest salads, to be eaten either alone or with game, especially partridges or wild duck, is a mixture of celery, beet-root, and corn-salad - if corn-salad cannot be obtained, water-cress will make a poor substitute, when broken into small tufts. The beets are cut into slices one sixteenth of an inch thick, the celery, which must be young and tender, and thoroughly white, should be cut into pieces an inch long, and then sliced lengthwise into two or three pieces. (N.B.-Select only the slender inside branches of celery.) This salad will require plenty of oil, and more acid than a lettuce salad, because of the sweetness and absorbent nature of the beet-root. The general seasoning, too, must be rather high, because the flavors of the celery and of the beet are pronounced.