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MAYONNAISE (a la Gelee)
The basis for this dish should be a firm savoury jelly. Aspic jelly is well suited for the purpose, and it may be adapted to any particular dish by dissolving and then adding the flavouring required. Take as much of the jelly as may be wanted, dissolve it in an enamelled saucepan, and whisk it to a white froth with double its quantity of good oil, and for a quarter of a pint of the jelly, when in a dissolved state, about half a dozen spoonfuls of tarragon vinegar, and of salt, pepper, and sugar, a tea-spoonful mixed, but half the quantity should be salt. Whisk all well, taking care to pour in the oil and vinegar, which should be added last, slowly and by degrees. When smooth and white like cream the mayonnaise is ready. It should be whisked over ice.
This is not mayonnaise in the modern sense — there is no egg yolk in it at all. The emulsion is held by dissolved aspic, and the whole thing sets firm as it chills, which is why it was used to mask cold poultry and fish rather than to dress a salad.
- The hinge: temperatureThe jelly must be liquid but barely warm when the oil goes in, and the bowl must be over ice as you whisk. Too hot and the emulsion never thickens; too cold and the aspic sets in ropes before the oil is absorbed. Work in a metal bowl set over ice water and stop the moment it is thick and opaque.
- Quarter of a pintAn imperial quarter-pint is 5 fl oz, about 145-150 ml, of dissolved jelly. "Double its quantity of good oil" is therefore roughly 300 ml - a generous 1 1/4 cups. The finished sauce comes to something over 450 ml.
- "Half a dozen spoonfuls"Genuinely ambiguous. Six tablespoons of tarragon vinegar against 150 ml of jelly would be aggressively sharp and would thin the set; six teaspoons is more plausible for a coating sauce. Add it at the end, by degrees, and taste as you go.
- Enamelled saucepanSpecified because tarragon vinegar in bare iron or unlined copper takes on a metallic taste and can discolour a white sauce. Any non-reactive pan — stainless, enamel, glass — does the job.
- The aspic itselfVictorian aspic was clarified veal or fish stock set with its own gelatin, or with sheet gelatin added. What matters is that it sets firm: a soft wobbling jelly will not hold the oil, so use rather more gelatin than for a jelly meant to be eaten with a spoon, and test a chilled spoonful before proceeding.
- Seasoning"A tea-spoonful mixed, but half the quantity should be salt" means half a teaspoon of salt with the remaining half split between pepper and sugar. Season while the mixture is still liquid, since a set sauce cannot be corrected.
- Using itApply while it is still pourable, in two thin coats over thoroughly chilled meat or fish, letting the first set in the refrigerator before the second. Anything left over will set solid and can be softened by standing the bowl in warm water and rewhisking over ice.
- KeepingBecause it is stock-based, treat it as you would any jellied meat stock: refrigerate, and use within two days.
This belongs to the family of cold coating sauces that dominated the late-nineteenth-century buffet table — mayonnaise collée, sauce chaud-froid, and the aspic-glazed "à la gelée" dishes that let a cook send out poultry, salmon or eggs under a smooth ivory surface that would hold its shine for hours. The technique matters more than the flavour: a sauce that sets means a dish that can be decorated with truffle, tarragon leaf or pickled beet cut into shapes, then sealed under clear aspic and left standing on a sideboard through a long meal. It reads as a method to be applied rather than a fixed recipe — the note that the jelly "may be adapted to any particular dish" by changing the stock is the whole point, fish aspic under fish, veal or chicken aspic under poultry. Egg-free versions like this one relied entirely on gelatin for the emulsion; the commoner form of mayonnaise collée, though, was an egg mayonnaise stiffened with a little jelly.