The dressing for salads, whether simply oil and vinegar, or a mayonnaise, should be mixed with a wooden spoon, and an intelligent mind. As for the seasonings, the Spanish maxim which reads as follows is a good guide: "Be a miser with vinegar, a counselor with salt, and a spendthrift with oil." Let the oil be of the first quality of genuine olive-oil. In nearly all the large cities one may get fine oil by searching for it. Once found, there is no longer any difficulty, so long as the brand does not deteriorate. To vary and flavor the salads of vegetables _only_, use the fine herbs when in season, for instance balm, mint, parsley, cress, and sorrel, chopped or minced, and scattered through the salad. Unless the vinegar is known to be pure cider or wine vinegar, use lemon-juice. Theodore Child says: "Lemon-juice is the most delicate and deliciously perfumed acid that nature has given the cook." FRENCH DRESSING French dressing is a mixture of fine olive-oil, vinegar or lemon-juice, or both, salt, Cayenne pepper, and onion-juice. The following proportions will make enough for one head of lettuce: 1 Tablespoon of oil. A bit of cayenne. ½ Saltspoon of salt. 4 Drops of onion-juice. 1 Teaspoon of lemon-juice. 1 Teaspoon of vinegar. Mix all together well. This dressing may be used with lettuce, tomatoes, cold meat, potato salad, and to marinate chicken, lobster, and crab when they are to be used for salads. MAYONNAISE DRESSING ½ Saltspoon of salt. 2 Saltspoons of mustard. 2 Saltspoons of sugar. ¼ Saltspoon of cayenne. Yolk of one egg. ½ Cup of olive-oil. 2 Tablespoons of lemon-juice. 1 Tablespoon of vinegar. 1 Tablespoon of thick sweet cream. These proportions may be multiplied or divided to make larger or smaller quantities. Put the first five ingredients together in a bowl, and mix them well; then add the oil one drop at a time, stirring constantly with a wooden paddle or spoon "round and round," not back and forth. After dropping and stirring for ten minutes, the mixture will become stiff and difficult to turn. At this point stir in a little of the vinegar or lemon-juice. Then drop in more oil, and stir until it again becomes stiff. Continue putting in oil and the acids until all are used, when you should have a thick, smooth cream which, when taken up on the end of the spoon, will keep its shape and not "run." It will take from twenty minutes to half an hour to make it. Last stir in the cream.