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Substitute ½ small red onion, thinly sliced, for the shallot.

Add ¼ cup toasted sliced almonds or chopped toasted walnut pieces with the celery.

For an easier salad, substitute a purchased rotisserie chicken for the boneless skinless breasts. Take the breast meat off the bones, remove the skin, chop the meat, and add it to the salad. For a whole rotisserie chicken, you’ll need to double the dressing in step 2 and the vegetables in step 3.

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Serving Suggestions

Try any of these salads in pita pockets or on toasted rye bread, split baguettes, toasted French bread, bagels, burger buns, or toasted English muffins. Mound them on toasted baguette rounds as an appetizer. Or try them in celery ribs, lettuce cups, Belgian endive spears, seeded melon halves, or hollowed-out tomato halves for a fancier dish.

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Egg Salad

June Cleaver may have made it a staple and Lisa Lubner’s mother may have made it kitsch but neither spiked it with horseradish. Makes 4 servings (can be halved, doubled, or tripled)

½ cup mayonnaise, homemade or purchased (regular, low-fat, or fat-free)

2 tablespoons prepared white horseradish

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon chopped dill fronds or 1½ teaspoons dried dill

1 medium shallot, minced

1 celery rib, minced

1 small dill pickle, minced

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon salt

8 cooled, hard-cooked large eggs (see section Appetizers, Nibbles, and Snacks for instructions on how to hard-cook eggs)

Whisk the mayonnaise, horseradish, mustard, dill, shallot, celery, pickle, pepper, and salt in a medium bowl.

Peel the eggs, roughly chop them, and stir gently into the mayonnaise mixture.

To store: Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Variations: Substitute tarragon leaves for the dill.

Substitute 2 tablespoons corn relish or 1 tablespoon hot chowchow for the dill pickle.

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Mayonnaise Salad Safety

All salads made with mayonnaise must be kept chilled, at or below 40F. If you’re taking them to a picnic, make sure their sealed container is buried in the ice in the cooler. That said, no mayonnaise salad freezes well.

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Main-Course Salads

You can turn any green salad into a main course with some protein and crunchy vegetablessection Salads, but here are some specialized salads for dinner.

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Poached Egg, Bacon,

and Frisée Salad

Although the bistro classic (in French, Salade aux Lardons) doesn’t usually have honey and mustard in it, we’ve given it an American twist that works well with the salty bacon. For another version of this salad with lentils, see French Lentils with Bacon. Makes 4 servings

1 pound slab bacon, cut into ½-inch pieces

2 medium shallots, thinly sliced into rings

3 tablespoons plus ½ teaspoon white wine vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons honey

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 large heads frisée or curly endive, torn into bite-sized pieces

To render the fat, place the bacon in a cold skillet set over low heat. When the bacon starts to sizzle, stir well, then cook slowly until crispy and well browned, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels, keeping the rendered fat in the pan.

Raise the heat to medium. Add the shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 2 minutes.

Remove the skillet from the heat and whisk in the 3 tablespoons vinegar, the mustard, honey, and pepper until creamy. Cover and set aside to keep warm.

Bring a large saucepan filled halfway with water to a boil over high heat. Add the remaining ½ teaspoon vinegar and reduce the heat so the water simmers very slowly.

Crack each of the eggs into small bowls or teacups, then slip the eggs into the water. Reduce the heat even further and cook at a very gentle simmer until the whites are set and the yolks are filmed over, 2 to 3 minutes. (For tips on poaching eggs, see section Breakfast and