Note 58 — SALLETS AND SALADS

"Two large potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve, Unwonted softness to the salad give. Of mordant mustard add a single spoon, Distrust the condiment that bites so soon; But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt. Three times the spoon with oil from Lucca crown, And once with vinegar procured from town. True flavour needs it, and your poet begs The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs; Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And, scarce suspected, animate the whole. And, lastly, on the flavoured compound toss A magic teaspoon of anchovy sauce. Then though green turtle fail, though venison's tough, And ham and turkey are not boiled enough, Serenely full, the epicure may say, 'Fate cannot harm me, I have dined to-day.'"