Apple Salad (by Mrs. Fannie Spurgeon)

Ironically, the first recipe I made, which is the first one in Mrs. Osborn's Cakes of Quality, is not a cake, but something called Apple Salad. It's nothing like the healthy salads we eat today; instead a single piece of lettuce is but the backdrop to "candied" apple slices whose centers are filled with a celery, nut and mayonaise mixture. It was pretty tasty (who doesn't like apples cooked in a sugar syrup), but it seemed all about the rather fussy presentation. There's a reason these kinds of composed salads didn't survive the 20th century.

(All of the contributors to the first half of Mrs. Osborn's book, are not identified beyond their name. If anyone knows who Fannie Spurgeon was, please let me know!)