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Mayonnaise Dressing
Sift into a bowl 1/2 teaspoon mustard 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt and Few grains cayenne. Add 1 egg yolk, mix well and add 1 tablespoon vinegar, stirring constantly. Measure 3/4 cup salad oil and add 3 teaspoons of the oil a drop at a time, beating constantly. Then while beating, add it 1 teaspoon at a time till mixture begins to thicken. When very thick, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice and add remaining oil rapidly. The whole process should take about 7 minutes.
A standard hand-beaten mayonnaise of the period, and it still works exactly as written provided the oil goes in slowly at the start. The seven-minute estimate assumes a bowl, a fork or small whisk, and steady attention.
- The hinge: the first spoonful of oilThe emulsion is made or lost in the first few additions: three teaspoons of oil go in literally drop by drop with constant beating, then a teaspoon at a time until the mixture begins to thicken. Only when it is very thick does the remaining oil go in quickly.
- Everything at room temperatureA cold yolk and cold oil emulsify badly. Take the egg out half an hour ahead, or set the bowl briefly in warm water.
- Salad oilIn American cookbooks of this era "salad oil" might mean olive oil or a bland cottonseed or corn oil (later soybean). A neutral oil is the safer choice here; a full-flavoured extra-virgin olive oil beaten this hard can turn bitter.
- Raw yolkThe yolk is never heated. If serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurized shell eggs or pasteurized yolk, and keep the finished dressing refrigerated.
- YieldRoughly a cup (3/4 cup oil plus the yolk, vinegar and lemon juice), enough to dress a salad for four to six, or to bind a chicken or potato salad for four.
- If it splitsStart a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and beat the broken mixture into it a few drops at a time. A teaspoon of cold water beaten in can also bring back a mixture that has only just begun to separate.
- Machine methodA blender or food processor will do it in under a minute with the oil trickled through the feed opening, though the texture comes out stiffer and less silky than the hand-beaten version.
- KeepingRefrigerate in a covered jar and use within three to four days. Homemade mayonnaise lacks the preservatives and the standardized acidity that let a commercial jar sit for months.
Mayonnaise reached American home cooks through French cookery, and the labour of beating oil into a yolk by hand made it a demanding dish to produce. Its name is generally traced to Mahón in Menorca, though the derivation is traditional rather than documented and several rival explanations circulate. By the time small entertaining books like this one appeared, mayonnaise had become the expected dressing for the cold chicken, lobster and vegetable salads that made up a luncheon or supper menu, where nothing needed to come to the table hot. That is part of why recipes like this one bother to specify the timing: seven minutes of steady beating was a real consideration for a hostess preparing several dishes at once.