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Salad Mixture, Quihi
Rub the yolks of three hard-boiled eggs with the back of a wooden spoon till quite smooth, and beat in drop by drop three dessert-spoonfuls of fine salad-oil. Add, just as slowly, six dessert-spoonfuls of vinegar, four of mushroom ketchup, three of anchovy essence, four salt-spoonfuls of salt, and four of mixed mustard. A spoonful of thick cream mixed with a well-mashed floury potato will greatly improve this salad. Wash the lettuce, dry it perfectly, shred it finely, and just before it is wanted mix the salad dressing lightly with it. Probable cost, 1s. 2d.
A cooked-yolk dressing in the old English manner, built like a mayonnaise but leaning hard on vinegar and salty condiments rather than oil. The measurements are small and the seasoning is aggressive, so read the conversions before you start.
- The hinge: add the liquids drop by dropThe mashed yolks carry the emulsion, and they will break if flooded. Work the oil in a few drops at a time until it is a smooth paste, then the vinegar equally slowly. Once it has split it is difficult to bring back together.
- Dessert-spoonful and salt-spoonfulA dessert-spoon is between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, about 2 teaspoons or 10 ml. A salt-spoon is roughly a quarter-teaspoon. So: 2 tbsp oil, 4 tbsp vinegar, 2 tbsp 2 tsp mushroom ketchup, 2 tbsp anchovy essence, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp made mustard.
- The vinegar is double the oilThat is not a misprint; this dressing is far sharper than a modern vinaigrette. If you want something closer to current taste, start with half the vinegar and add the rest only if the yolks can still absorb it.
- SaltA teaspoon of salt on top of anchovy essence and mushroom ketchup will be too much for most palates. Season at the end, after tasting, rather than measuring it in blind.
- Anchovy essence and mushroom ketchupMushroom ketchup is still sold and is worth seeking out; it is a thin, dark, savoury vinegar infusion, not tomato ketchup. For anchovy essence use anchovy paste loosened with a little water, or a good splash of Worcestershire sauce.
- Mixed mustardMustard powder slaked with cold water and left ten minutes to develop, which is how it was kept on the Victorian table. Dijon works and is milder; English mustard from a jar is the closer match.
- The potato and creamA floury potato, boiled and mashed smooth while hot, then cooled and beaten in with a spoonful of double cream, thickens the dressing and blunts the acid. It is the single change most likely to make this palatable to a modern eater.
- Dress at the last momentShredded lettuce collapses fast under a vinegar-heavy dressing. Spin or towel the leaves genuinely dry, keep them cold, and toss only as the dish goes to the table.
- YieldAbout a cup of dressing, enough for two or three heads of lettuce. It keeps two or three days covered in the refrigerator; whisk before using.
"Quihi" is Anglo-Indian slang, generally traced to the Hindustani call koi hai? — "is anyone there?" — shouted for a servant, and applied by the British in India to Anglo-Indians of the Bengal Presidency. Nothing here is actually Indian: the pungency comes from mushroom ketchup and anchovy essence, both thoroughly English bottled sauces of the period, and the technique is the standard cooked-yolk salad mixture found in Victorian household books. The listing of a "probable cost, 1s. 2d." is characteristic of Cassell's, addressed to a cook working to a mistress's budget.