Compound Sallet-To compound an excellent Sallet, and which indeed is usuall at great Feasts, and upon Princes Tables, take a good quantity of blanche Almonds, and with your shredding knife cut them grossly. Then take as many Raisins of the Sun clean wash, and the stones picked out, as many Figs shred like the Almonds, as many Capers, twice so many Olives, and as many Currants as of all the rest, clean wash, a good handful of the small tender leaves of red Sage and spinach: mix all these well together with good store of Sugar, and lay them in the bottom of a great dish. Then put unto them Vinegar and Oil, and scrape more Sugar all over: then take Oranges and Lemons, and paring away the outward piles cut them into thin slices. Then with those slices cover the Sallet all over; which done, take the fine thin leaves of the red Cauliflower, and with them cover the Oranges and Lemons all over. Then over those Red leaves lay another course of old Olives, and the slices of well pickled Cucumbers, together with the very inward heart of Cabbage lettuce cut into slices. Then adorn the sides of the dish, and the top of the Sallet with more slices of Lemons and Oranges, and so serve it up. -Gervase Markham, The English Hous-wife

Since Elizabethan food is rather sweet, a piquant salad is essential in your meal, "to make the matter savoury." Using spinach and shredded red cabbage as your base, add small bits of the [above] ingredients to taste.

Prepare a dressing of oil, vinegar, lemon juice, a pinch of sugar, and salt to taste. You will be amazed that such an unlikely combination of ingredients comes to such a felicitous end.

from To The Queen's Taste by Lorna J. Sass "Side Dishes" posted by Tiffany Hall-Graham