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Dressing for Chicken Salad
To four chickens, the yolks of twelve eggs mashed very smooth with: 1 raw egg beaten light. 1/2 1/2 teacup of mustard. 1/2 teaspoonful red pepper. 1 teacup salad oil. 1 cup of vinegar. 1 quart of cut celery. Salt to the taste. --Mrs. J. W.
A cooked-yolk dressing of the kind that preceded jarred mayonnaise in American kitchens: hard-boiled yolks carry the emulsion, one raw egg tightens it, and oil and vinegar go in against that base. The recipe assumes you know how to build it, so the order of operations is the thing to get right.
- Add the oil slowlyMash the twelve cooked yolks with the raw egg and mustard to a paste first, then work in the oil a few drops at a time until it thickens, and only then let in the vinegar. Adding oil and vinegar together into the yolks risks a greasy, separated sauce.
- Scale it downFour chickens is a party-sized quantity. For one 4 lb chicken, use three cooked yolks, a small raw egg, and quarter measures of everything else.
- What a teacup meansA teacup in period recipes is generally smaller than a modern 8 oz measuring cup, though the size was not standardised and the book does not define it. The recipe measures the oil in teacups and the vinegar in cups, so the vinegar may well outweigh the oil.
- The mustard is ambiguousHalf a teacup of dry mustard powder would be overwhelming; half a teacup of prepared mustard is plausible. Start with two tablespoons of prepared mustard per four cooked yolks and taste upward rather than guessing at the original.
- Red pepperThis is cayenne, not paprika and not a fresh chili. Half a teaspoon across a batch this size is a background warmth, not heat.
- Salad oilIn 1877 Virginia this usually meant olive oil, sometimes cottonseed. Either olive oil or a neutral oil works; a strongly grassy modern olive oil will dominate the mustard.
- VinegarCider vinegar was common in this period and kitchen. A full cup against a teacup of oil gives a thin, acidic dressing by current standards, so add it in stages and stop when the balance suits you.
- The raw eggThe single raw egg is never cooked. If you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use a pasteurized egg, and keep the finished salad refrigerated rather than sitting out on a buffet.
- CeleryA quart of cut celery is folded into the salad, not the dressing. Cut it small and dress the chicken and celery shortly before serving so the celery stays crisp.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1877), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by named and initialed Virginia housekeepers, is full of dressings like this one, signed only "Mrs. J. W." The base of mashed hard-boiled yolks is older than the smooth all-raw-yolk mayonnaise that later took over American cookbooks: cooked yolks are forgiving and hold an emulsion without much technique. Chicken salad itself was a fixture of Southern entertaining in this period, a dish built to be made in quantity for church suppers, weddings and summer company, which is why the recipe opens at four chickens and a quart of celery rather than any household-sized amount. Bottled mayonnaise is generally said not to have reached American shops until the twentieth century, so a dressing like this was made at home, alongside raw-yolk mayonnaise and boiled dressings.