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French Dressing
Measure three tablespoons of Larkin Olive Oil and one tablespoon of vinegar. Mix one teaspoon of Larkin Table Salt, and onefourth teaspoon of Larkin Cayenne Pepper together dry. Beat into these slowly the oil and then gradually the vinegar. This dressing must be thick and creamy, the oil being entirely emulsified.
A plain vinaigrette at a 3:1 ratio, written for a company that wanted you buying its oil, salt and pepper. Two of the quantities need adjusting before you pour it over lettuce.
- YieldFour tablespoons, about a quarter cup. Enough for a salad for two or three; scale up freely, keeping the 3:1 oil to vinegar ratio.
- The salt is too muchA teaspoon of salt in four tablespoons of dressing is aggressively saline by current taste. Start with a quarter teaspoon and adjust.
- The cayenne likewiseA quarter teaspoon of cayenne in this volume is a genuinely hot dressing. A pinch is closer to what most modern palates expect, or substitute a grind of black pepper.
- Getting the emulsionThe hinge is the order of operations: salt and pepper first, then oil beaten in slowly, then vinegar last and gradually. Adding vinegar early gives you a broken dressing that separates on the plate.
- Making it holdOil and vinegar alone will separate within minutes no matter how hard you beat. A quarter teaspoon of mustard, or a jar shaken hard just before serving, will keep it creamy through the meal.
- The vinegarUnspecified, which in this period usually meant cider or white wine vinegar. Both work; distilled white vinegar is harsher than the original likely intended.
- Larkin productsBrand names from the book's sponsor. Any decent olive oil, fine salt and ground cayenne will do.
The repeated Larkin brand names here reflect the Larkin Company of Buffalo, a soap manufacturer that expanded into groceries and household goods sold by mail and through clubs, and whose products turn up throughout the period's recipe writing. "French dressing" in American books of this era means simply oil, vinegar and seasoning beaten together, what a French cook would call a vinaigrette; the sweet orange bottled dressing that later claimed the name in the United States is a twentieth-century commercial invention with no connection to this formula.