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Kirkwood Potato Salad
Six large boiled potatoes, one small onion, two hard-boiled eggs, one cup sweet cream, one-half cup vinegar, one teaspoon mustard, one teaspoon of salt, one raw egg and a pinch of red pepper. Beat the egg and stir in the mustard, salt and pepper, add vinegar and let it thicken on the stove. When cool mince the onion and mix with the dressing, cut the potatoes and hardboiled eggs in small pieces, add the dressing and cream, mix all together and serve on lettuce leaves.
A boiled-dressing potato salad of the type that dominated American tables before bottled mayonnaise. The dressing is the whole dish; the potatoes are just the vehicle.
- Don't let the dressing boilThe egg, mustard, salt, pepper and vinegar go over gentle heat only until they coat a spoon — a double boiler is the safest vessel. Direct heat and a moment's inattention give you scrambled egg, and there is no rescuing it.
- "Sweet cream"This means fresh, unsoured cream, as opposed to the sour cream or clabbered milk equally common in these kitchens. Heavy cream works; the fat softens the vinegar's edge. A cup is a generous amount for six potatoes, so add it gradually and stop when the salad is dressed rather than swimming.
- Half a cup of vinegarThe recipe doesn't name a vinegar; household vinegars of the period were not standardized to the modern 5 percent and could vary in strength. Taste the finished dressing before it meets the potatoes; you may want to hold back an ounce or two of a modern sharp white vinegar.
- Red pepperCayenne, not paprika and not chile flakes. A pinch means a pinch — it should register as warmth behind the mustard, not as heat.
- MustardA teaspoon of dry mustard powder is the likelier reading; prepared mustard would add more vinegar and thin the dressing. Dry mustard also needs a few minutes' contact with liquid to develop its bite.
- PotatoesBoil them whole in their skins and peel while warm, which keeps them from waterlogging. Waxy varieties hold their shape when cut; a floury baking potato will break down into paste as you mix.
- Dress warm, serve coolCut potatoes absorb dressing far better while still warm, though the recipe has you cool the dressing first for the egg's sake. Combine the two while the potatoes retain some heat, then chill before serving on the lettuce.
- YieldSix potatoes and two eggs will serve six as a side dish. It keeps a day or two refrigerated, but the dressing tightens and may need loosening with a spoonful of cream.
Boiled dressings like this one — egg, vinegar, mustard and cream thickened over heat — were a common American salad sauce in the nineteenth century, before commercial mayonnaise reached grocery shelves in the 1910s. They suited a household economy that had eggs and cream but no reliable supply of good olive oil, and they kept better than an emulsified oil dressing in a kitchen without refrigeration. The "Kirkwood" of the title most likely points to a place or a family rather than to any established culinary style; community cookbooks of this kind often collected receipts under the name of whoever contributed them or of the locality they came from.