Roast Beef Salad Recipe from Aunt Lois and Uncle Sam

My Aunt Lois was an excellent cook, and that is what I remember most about her. She also had a talent for presentation of food and entertaining, able to put on a beautiful table with no trouble at all. She passed away a year ago after a courageous battle with a rare illness, and I have since thought much about this very integral part of who she was.

She was from Bluff City, Tennessee, but she had lived in Richmond for most of her adult life. Through her friends at church, RV club, and other contacts there in Richmond, she had absorbed a very sophisticated urban style of cooking which was very different from the normal fare I was accustomed to. She was the first one to introduce me to chicken catchetori while our family was visiting one summer, and we had no idea what it was. How exotic it was to have chicken with something like spaghetti sauce on top served in the dining room on a beautiful platter!

I have so often wanted to ask for her recipe for roast beef salad that she made, but I wanted to avoid causing her family any sadness. Like many women, looking through her cookbooks and recipes would be a very personal peek into her heart; maybe it was too soon, I feared. I found what appears to be Aunt Lois's roast beef salad, but it was in an old government pamphlet called, "Money Saving Main Dishes," published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1979. I think the only difference was that she added sliced boiled eggs. Thanks Uncle Sam and Aunt Lois.

Ingredients:

Mayonnaise: 1/3 cup
Pickle relish: 2 Tablespoon
Salt, if meat is unsalted: 1 teaspoon
Mustard: 1 teaspoon
Worcestershire sauce: 1 teaspoon
Chopped onion: 1/3 cup
Celery chopped: 1/2 cup
Roast beef in cubes or thin strips: 3 cups
Lettuce: as desired
Pimiento or green pepper strips: as desired

Instructions:

Blend mayonnaise or salad dressing with pickle relish, salt, prepared mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and onion.
Mix in celery and beef.
Chill thoroughly.
Serve on lettuce.
Garnish with pimiento or green pepper strips.

(Note: I think Aunt Lois put the pimiento in the salad instead of on top.)