Basic Professional French Cooking

Maçedoine de Legumes

    The Maçedoine de Legumes is an example of a salade composée. At the turn of the century, salads were usually grouped in two categories - simple salads which consisted of a single component, such as a green salad or the separate components of an assiette de crudités, or composed salads which consisted of several different vegetables, fish, meat, etc. The elements in a salade composée can be bound together with a variety of different dressings - vinaigrette, cream and vinegar sauce, mayonnaise, hard-boiled egg sauces, etc.

    In Escoffier’s time, simple green salads were served as an accompaniment to the roast (which was usually served after braised or sautéed meats) and composed salads were served closer to the beginning of a dinner or as an accompaniment to cold roasts. Nowadays, salades composées are usually served as first courses in themselves while green salads are served after the man coarse.

    The Maçedoine de Legumes was one of the most popular salads of the late nineteenth century. The recipe given here uses a simple mayonnaise, but other flavored mayonnaise are possible, such as tomato or tarragon.

Ingredients (for 8 servings)

600 g Carrots, peeled (21 oz)

400 g Turnips, peeled (14 oz)

200 g String Beans (7 oz)

200 g Peas (7 oz)

For the Mayonnaise::

2 Egg Yolks

20 g Mustard (.6oz)

300 ml Vegetable Oil (10.5 fl oz)

Vinegar to taste (about .6 fl oz)

Salt and White Pepper

Procedure

1. -Pell and wash the carrots and turnips. Cut into jardiniere and then into macedoine.
   

2. -Break off the ends of the string beans and vut into .5 cm lengths.
   

3. -Defrost peas.
   

4. -Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add a strainer to the water and cook each vegetable separately in the water. Refresh, drain and dry each vegetable well.
   

5. -When dry, mix together.
   

Preparing the Mayonnaise

1. -Make sure that all ingredients are at room temperature.
   

2. -Combine the egg yolks, salt and mustard.
   

3. -Add the oil drop by drop in the beginning until it thickens and you have an emulsion.
   

4. -Add vinegar to taste and adjust seasoning.
   

Presentation

1. -Add the mayonnaise to the macedoine a little at a time until the vegetables are bound together.
   

2. -There are a number of possibilities for presenting the salad: mounted in leaves of lettuce with hard cooked eggs around, anchovy filets in criss-cross patterns on top, sprinkled with chopped herbs, on a then tomato mayonnaise or sauce vert, thinned with vinegar or court-bouillon, etc. Escoffier suggested decorating with beets and caviar.

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