Compound Salads

Salade composée (compound salad) teaches restraint in arrangement: season every constituent on its own, then keep the colors apart until the platter reaches the table. That is the one true thing to know before a pan comes out. Mix everything early and the beet stains the potatoes, the beans lose their clean green, and every bite tastes of the same dressing. Set them in distinct heaps and each vegetable keeps its voice.

The professional garde-manger, the cold pantry, kept trays of cooked vegetables ready, had several hands for separate seasoning, and could spare aspic for a decorated jelly border. Your kitchen has one saucepan, a few bowls, and one cook. We use that pan in sequence, begin with plain cooked beetroot from the preserved pantry, and make a generous platter for four. The jelly border and moulded display are brigade scaffolding, so they go. Separate seasoning, contrasted color, and an unmixed arrangement are the dish, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The canon gives a method rather than a compulsory shopping list. Potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, and beetroot supply the intended contrasts, while cornichons, radishes, potato rounds, and a little truffle retain the old border vocabulary. The vinaigrette is their shared foundation, but it must meet each vegetable separately. That individual seasoning is the step that decides the salad.