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Cream
To 1/4 cupful of mayonnaise add 1 tablespoonful vinegar and 1 teaspoonful English mustard, 2 tablespoonfuls fresh grated horseradish, a pinch of salt, and a dash of cayenne. Add to this, stirring continuously, 1 cupful whipped cream. Serve very cold with cold fish.
A cold horseradish cream, built on mayonnaise and lightened with whipped cream, meant for cold poached fish, shellfish and cold cuts. It comes together in five minutes and lives or dies on how the cream goes in.
- Fold, don't stirWhip the cream to soft peaks and fold it into the seasoned mayonnaise base in two or three additions. Stirring continuously, as written, knocks the air out and leaves you with a slack dressing rather than a cream.
- English mustardIn a book of this period this most likely means dry English mustard powder rather than a prepared jar mustard. If using prepared English mustard, start with half the amount, as it is already thinned and salted.
- Fresh horseradishTwo tablespoons of freshly grated root is sharply pungent, and that pungency fades quickly once the root is grated. Bottled horseradish in vinegar can stand in, but drain it well and reduce the added vinegar to a teaspoon or so.
- VinegarNo type is specified; a plain white wine or cider vinegar suits cold fish better than malt. Add it to the mayonnaise before the cream, so the acid does not thin the finished sauce.
- MayonnaiseA cook of the period may well have made this fresh from raw yolks. Commercial mayonnaise made with pasteurised egg is the sensible base here, since nothing in the sauce is cooked and it is served cold.
- Yield and holdingAbout one and a half cups, enough for six to eight servings alongside fish. A cream-lightened sauce like this will weep in time; make it the same day and keep it refrigerated until the moment it goes to table.
- Seasoning orderTaste the base before the cream goes in and pitch it slightly too sharp. A cup of whipped cream mutes salt, acid and cayenne considerably.