Recipes

Salmagundy

Date

Sept. 8, 2022

Learn about this recipe from our Historic Foodways staff, then try it at home.

Contrary to popular belief, the British ate salads. Usually, meat was the criteria for judging the quality of a meal, and perhaps the host and hostess. Nevertheless, salmagundy was one of those special dishes loved by all. This dish was a centerpiece at a fine table and had the status of the best roasted beef.

Learn how we make this recipe in our kitchens based on the 18th-century description below, then use our 21st-century translation to try the recipe at home!

18th Century

TAKE two or three Roman or Cabbage-Lettuce; and when you have wash’d them clean, swing them pretty dry in a Cloth; then beginning at the open End, cut them cross-ways, as fine as a good big Thread, and lay the Lettuce so cut about an Inch thick in the Bottom of a Dish...

— Nott, Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary, Art. 35.

21st Century

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, roasted
1 head red leaf lettuce
4 eggs, hard-boiled
1 head green leaf lettuce
2 small onions
2 2-oz. tins of flat anchovy fillets, partially drained
1 lemon
4 Tbsp. olive oil
8 slices of ham (6” round, medium thickness)
4 Tbsp. vinegar
Salt and pepper

Instructions

After chicken is roasted, separate meat from the bone. Coarsely chop, keeping the dark meat separate from the white meat.
Shell hard-boiled eggs. Separate the yolks from the whites and mince each separately.
Finely chop the onions and parsley, and dice the lemons. Keep separate.
Cut ham slices into 1” squares.
Wash and drain lettuces, separate leaves, and dry.
On a large round plate, arrange your ingredients as follows, working from the outside into the center in rings: red lettuce leaves, green lettuce leaves, white chicken meat, anchovies, minced egg yolks, diced lemon, dark chicken meat, onions, ham pieces, parsley, and egg whites.
In a small bowl, add oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper (to taste). Mix well and drizzle over entire salad. Serve.