Salad oil

“ Peanut oil is highly prized as a salad oil either alone or mixed with other oil, notably olive oil and sesamé. The oil is purified by a large settle and by filtration and by the processes usually practiced with other oils of vegetable origin. The oil is easily and completely digested and furnishes an abundant source of heat and energy to the system. The number of calories produced by the combustion of one gram of oil, either by ordinary burning or by oxidation in the body is about 9,300. ”

“ The best grades are also clear, while the poorer ones are usually cloudy, the better the quality the less cloudy the oil. Besides olive oil, however, there are oils made of cottonseed, corn, and nuts. Many of these products are cheaper than olive oil and are almost, if not quite, as satisfactory. In combination with the oil that is used for salad dressing, there is always an acid of some kind, such as vinegar or lemon juice. To these ingredients are added spices and flavoring. Such a dressing is prepared without cooking, the ingredients being combined by proper mixing or beating. ”

“ As a cosmetic, nothing equals olive oil. The beauty of Spanish and Italian women is owing largely to their daily and liberal use of it in salads and cooked foods. It improves the complexion and rounds out the lines of the form.
Eating salad is by far the most agreeable way to take olive oil. There are persons with whom all acids disagree; these unfortunates have to do without the fragrant vinegar; but they can easily learn to like salads with oil and salt alone. The taste is decidedly worth acquiring.
In making the dressing, oil should by all means be applied "by a spendthrift." ”

“ The oil is fine for salad, and all the other uses of olive oil, and may be extracted, as is the flax-seed oil, or by boiling water, to the top of which it will rise, and may be skimmed, and bottled or put into casks. It is very common on the west coast of Africa, and grows to most advantage on poor, sandy hills. ”

“ Since the discovery of the value of cottonseed products, the industry has grown rapidly. The oil is now used in cooking, is mixed with olive oil, is sold pure for salad oil, and is an important constituent of oleomargarine, lard substitutes, and soap, to name only a few of the uses to which it is put. The cake, or meal from which the oil has been pressed, is rich in nitrogen and is therefore valuable as fertilizer; it is also a standard food for cattle, and tentative experiments with it have even been made as a food for human beings. ”

“ Sesamé oil has an agreeable taste, and is considered equal to Olive oil for edible purposes. The best qualities are rather difficult to obtain; those usually sold being much inferior to Peach-kernel and Olive oils. Cotton-seed oil is the cheapest of the edible ones. Salad oil, not sold under any descriptive name, is usually refined Cotton-seed oil, with perhaps a little Olive oil to impart a richer flavour.
The solid fats sold as butter and lard substitutes, consist of deodorised cocoanut oil, and they are excellent for cooking purposes. ”

“ These methods of purification are not available in the kitchen, as oil of vitriol is a vicious compound. During the siege of Paris some of the Academicians devoted themselves very earnestly to the subject of the purification of fat in order to produce what they termed ‘siege butter’ from the refuse of slaughter-houses, &c., and edible salad oils from crude colza oil, from the rancid fish oils used by the leather-dresser, &c. ”

“ This is a wholesome oil with a fragrant odour and pleasant taste, which is largely used as a salad oil in certain parts of Europe. It is one of the few vegetable oils that can be detected by means of a special colour reaction; for on treating the oil with a particular reagent it gives a bright rose colour, and the test is so sensitive that it will detect the presence of even a small percentage of sesame oil in other fats.
A compulsory addition of a small amount of sesame oil to all margarine, therefore, affords an absolutely certain means of recognising the margarine subsequently. ”

“ The addition of a pretty salad to a menu not only gives a refined, attractive appearance to the table, but is appetizing, and, I might say, almost a necessity in this climate, speaking from a health standpoint. Fruits and vegetables contain a large amount of the necessary salts required by the system, and as for olive oil, the many benefits derived from the use of pure olive oil are so great that it is considered by good authority a positive beautifier. We all know that celery and onions are soothing to the nerves. ”

“ When the shoots are a few inches long, trim them off, as wanted, and add them to any salad with a plain dressing.
Plain Salad Dressing is admissible with nearly all salads. It is composed of oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt, and nothing else. Many who do not care particularly for oil, use equal quantities of oil and vinegar, others one-third vinegar to two-thirds oil; these proportions satisfy a large class, but four parts of oil to one of vinegar are about the right proportions, provided the vinegar is of the best. ”

“ Good oil is not dear, but exceedingly wholesome. The least degree of the flavour of garlic is liked by some in salad, and may be obtained by cutting open a clove and rubbing it a few times round the salad bowl. Some persons like a very little grated parmesan, in their salad.
Where oil is not liked, use oiled butter, or cream. Rub very smooth on a soup plate the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, with thick cream ”

“ Sardine Salad.—Wash the oil from six sardines, remove skin and bone and pour a little lemon juice over them. Put into a salad-bowl the leaves of a head of crisp lettuce; add the fish. Chop up two hard-boiled eggs, add to the fish, and serve with a plain dressing. Some do not approve of the washing process, but one of the principal reasons why Americans dislike oil is the fact that they first tasted it on sardines with which a poor fish-oil is generally used, and the reason that the trade in sardines has fallen off, is owing to the poor oil used in the canning of these otherwise dainty fish. ”

“ The seeds are not wasted for the oil is pressed out and sold to be used, as olive oil is used in cooking and salad. Sometimes this oil is sold to men who get mixed in putting on the labels and instead of marking the bottles of oil with American labels, they get marked as fancy olive oil from Italy. ”

“ Some ladies are in the habit of taking it on brandy and water; but the spirit is apt to dissolve a portion of the oil, which afterwards rises in the throat.
285. If salad oil be preferred, the dose ought to be as much again as of castor oil; and the patient should, during the day she takes it, eat either a fig or two, or a dozen or fifteen of stewed prunes, or of stewed French plums, as salad oil is much milder in its effects than castor oil.
286. Where a lady cannot take oil, one or two compound rhubarb pills may be taken at bedtime; or a Seidlitz powder early in the morning, occasionally ”

“ A more dainty way, and one which a person of cultivated taste will appreciate (as it really makes a perceptible difference in the flavor of the salad) , is to mix the lemon-juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper together without the oil, and pour it over the different layers [216] as they are laid, and then add the oil by itself. The acids penetrate and season the vegetables, and the oil is left on the outside of each piece. ”

“ When this is the case a little more oil may be added at a time, but never more than a teaspoonful. As more oil is added, and the beating continues, the sauce gets thicker and thicker, till it is nearly as thick as butter in summer time. When it arrives at this stage no more oil should be added. A little tarragon vinegar may be added at the finish, or a little lemon juice. This makes the sauce whiter in colour. One yolk of egg will take a teacupful of oil. It is best to add pepper and salt when the salad is mixed. Mayonnaise sauce is by far the best sauce for lettuce salad. ”

“ They are now made in an endless variety of ways, and are composed of meat, fish, vegetables (alone or in combination) or fruits, with the addition of a dressing. The salad plants, lettuce, watercress, chiccory, cucumbers, etc., contain but little nutriment, but are cooling, refreshing, and assist in stimulating the appetite. They are valuable for the water and potash salts they contain. The olive oil, which usually forms the largest part of the dressing, furnishes nutriment, and is of much value to the system.
Salads made of greens should always be served crisp and cold. ”

“ This Carron oil can be prepared in a very simple way. It consists of equal parts of olive oil and lime-water. Olive oil, or salad or Lucca oil, is the oil best suited for the purpose; but if not easily obtainable, linseed oil answers the purpose very well. Lime-water can be easily made by any one, if it cannot be procured otherwise. About a teaspoonful of the lime used by builders—if the purer kind is not obtainable—added to a pint of water and well shaken, is all that is required. ”

“ The chief faults of the average salad, next to the use of inferior oil and flabby lettuce, are the excess of dressing, the excess of vinegar, and the use of pepper which is not freshly ground. A salad prepared in the manner described is as different as chalk is from cheese from the salad which is generally put before one, and no more difficult to make. ”

“ Then the various ingredients should be very delicately and deliberately compounded, and withal by a quick and cunning hand, and the result will be perfection. Below we give the receipts for a class of salads best adapted for general use.
In the preparation of all salads only good oil should be used, as none other will produce invariably satisfactory results. The very best salads are often the result of the inspiration of the moment, when the necessity arises for substituting some ingredient near at hand for one not to be obtained, as in the case of the shad-roe salad mentioned below. ”

“ Let the salad be well washed and dried in a cloth before you cut it up; save a part of the celery with a little beet-root and endive for ornament in the middle of the dish: cut the rest small as well as the lettuce and mustard and cresses, and put to it the following mixture: take the yolk of an egg boiled hard, rub it quite smooth with a table-spoonful of oil and a little mustard; when they are well mixed together add six spoonsful of milk or cream, and when these are well mixed, put six or seven spoonsful of vinegar to the whole, and mix it all together with the salad. ”

“ Heat the cream in a farina-kettle almost to boiling; then stir in the flour, previously wet with cold milk. Boil for two minutes, stirring all the time; add the sugar, and take from the fire. When half cold beat in the whipped whites of egg with swift strokes, but not many. Set aside to cool. When quite cold, whip in the oil, [152] pepper, mustard and salt, and if your salad is ready, add the vinegar, and pour at once over it.
This dressing is especially nice for lettuce salad. If made for chickens, only the white meat should be used. ”

“ When pure and fresh they usually have little or no taste or smell; but, when exposed to the air, they become darker in color, have a disagreeable taste and smell, and are called rancid. As examples of vegetable oils we have cottonseed-oil, linseed-oil, olive-oil, almond-oil and cocoa-butter. Linseed is brought largely from Russia and India; Africa supplies palm-oil; India and the Pacific islands cocoanut-oil; while the best olive-oil is brought from Italy. In animal oils the principal ones are butter, lard, tallow, neatsfoot-oil and sperm-oil. ”

“ To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist—the problem is so entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's vinegar. ”

“ It would be impossible to enumerate all the available sources of vegetable oils, for all seeds and nuts contain more or less fatty matter and as we become more economical we shall utilize of what we now throw away. The germ of the corn kernel, once discarded in the manufacture of starch, now yields a popular table oil. From tomato seeds, one of the waste products of the canning factory, can be extracted 22 per cent. of an edible oil. Oats contain 7 per cent. of oil. From rape seed the Japanese get 20,000 tons of oil a year. ”

“ That is why it is used in painting. Such oils are called "drying" oils, although the hardening process is not really drying, since they contain no water, but is oxidation. The "semi-drying oils," those that will harden somewhat on exposure to the air, include the oils of cottonseed, corn, sesame, soy bean and castor bean. Olive oil and peanut oil are "non-drying" and contain oleic compounds (olein) . The hard fats, such as stearin, palmitin and margarin, are mostly of animal origin, tallow and lard, though coconut and palm oil contain a large proportion of such saturated compounds. ”

“ 10 Our Garrick’s a salad; for in him we see Oil, vinegar, sugar, and saltness agree: To make out the dinner, full certain I am, That Ridge is anchovy, and Reynolds is lamb; ”

“ Do not buy it of a grocer who exposes his bottles in the show window. If he does not know that sunlight spoils the best olive oil, he is not likely to know, or care, what the best oil is.
Among the adulterants used to cheapen olive oil small quantities of castor oil, lard oil, fish oil, and even petroleum have been found. More frequent are rapeseed and poppy-seed oil. Peanut oil is much used, but the most frequent adulterant is cottonseed oil, which costs only about one-fifth the price of high-grade olive [229] oil and therefore offers great temptation to the dealer. ”