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Cream Salad Dressing
Beat 2 eggs until very light; add 1 teaspoonful of sugar, 1/2 teaspoonful of salt, 1/4 saltspoonful of mustard, a pinch of red pepper, and 1 teaspoonful of butter. When well mixed, add 3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar, and cook over boiling water until it thickens. Remove from the stove and thin with 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of rich, sweet cream.
A boiled dressing of the kind that filled the gap before bottled mayonnaise: eggs and vinegar thickened over hot water, then loosened with cream. It is quick, but it curdles the moment it gets too hot.
- The hinge: gentle, constant heatCook it in a double boiler or a bowl set over the water, as the recipe directs, and stir without stopping. Eggs begin to set in the region of 160-170F, so direct heat under the pan will scramble them into grains that no amount of cream will smooth out.
- SaltspoonfulA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so a quarter saltspoonful of mustard is about 1/16 teaspoon — a scant pinch of dry English or yellow mustard powder.
- Red pepperThis means cayenne, not paprika and not sweet red pepper. A pinch is genuinely all it needs against three tablespoons of vinegar.
- Sweet cream"Sweet" here means fresh rather than soured or cultured. Heavy or whipping cream gives the intended richness; half-and-half will thin the dressing more than it enriches it.
- VinegarThe recipe does not say which vinegar; cider is the likeliest for the period. Household vinegars varied in strength, so start with the three tablespoons, taste after the cream goes in, and add more only if it reads flat.
- Yield and consistencySomething under a cup. It thickens further as it cools, so thin with a little more cream at serving.
- KeepingThis is a cooked egg dressing with no oil emulsion holding it. Refrigerate and use within three or four days; stir before serving, as it separates slightly.
- What it suitsSharper and lighter than mayonnaise, it belongs on cabbage, potato, or a sturdy head lettuce rather than delicate greens, which it weighs down.