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Mayonnaise Maigre
Mix two egg yolks, one teaspoonful of dry mustard, a teaspoonful of salt, a little cayenne, and two tablespoonfuls of vinegar in a small bowl.
Now add one and a half cups of mineral oil. Put the oil in, a teaspoonful at a time, beating with an egg beater until the dressing begins to thicken and then add by the tablespoonful, beating slowly until you have a thick mayonnaise. This mayonnaise is good for a reducing diet.
The problem here is the oil, and it is not a problem that can be adjusted around. Mineral oil is the entire volume of the dressing.
- Mineral oil is not a foodLiquid paraffin is a petroleum distillate sold as a laxative, not an ingredient. A cup and a half of it, emulsified and eaten by the spoonful over a salad, is a laxative dose taken repeatedly and without measure.
- Why it was called dieteticIt passes through undigested, so it contributes no calories. That same property is the hazard: it dissolves and carries out vitamins A, D, E and K, and habitual use was linked to deficiency in exactly the people eating it daily to lose weight.
- Aspiration riskInhaled droplets of mineral oil are not cleared by the lungs and can cause lipoid pneumonia. This is a documented risk of regular oral mineral oil, and one of several reasons it is no longer a casual household staple.
- The raw yolksTwo uncooked yolks in an unheated emulsion is standard for period mayonnaise, but note that nothing in this recipe is ever brought to temperature and the acid is only two tablespoonfuls of vinegar for the whole batch.
- What to do insteadUse a current mayonnaise recipe with a food oil. This one has no salvageable version, because subtracting the mineral oil leaves nothing but seasoning.
- Reading the rest of the methodThe technique itself — teaspoon at a time until it takes, then by the tablespoon — is sound emulsion practice and worth recognising, but it is not a reason to make this dressing.
Maigre is the old French kitchen word for lean: a maigre dish is one made without meat or fat, originally for fast days, and the term is often said to have drifted later toward meaning any lightened version of a rich preparation. Here it has been repurposed for the reducing craze of the 1920s and 30s, when weight loss moved from medical advice into popular magazines and mineral oil was marketed as a calorie-free salad oil under a number of brand names. The trade was substantial enough that public health authorities eventually pushed back over the vitamin depletion and the laxative effect, and mineral oil disappeared from the salad shelf. Its survival in a book like this one is a useful reminder that the line between food and pharmacy has been redrawn more than once, and that a recipe printed in good faith is not the same as a recipe that was ever a good idea.