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Sana Mayonnaise
The yolks (raw) of two eggs.
Stir in oil, a drop at a time, until it begins to thicken, and then pour it in slowly still, but in greater quantities, stirring continually. Add cayenne pepper, salt, and vinegar to the taste.
If mustard is liked in the sauce, it must be mixed with the yolks of the eggs before dropping the oil.
This sauce should be nearly as thick as soft butter. It makes a delicious dressing for lettuce, celery, cold poultry or game; and also for cold boiled fish or pickled salmon. If used with the latter, the salmon should be placed in the centre of the dish and covered thickly with sauce. Boiled chestnuts, peeled, small pickled onions, sliced cucumbers, lettuce, etc., are a great addition, and should be used to dress or garnish the dish, but not be mixed with the salmon.--Mrs. E. P., Cin.
A classic hand-beaten mayonnaise with no quantities for the oil, which is normal for the period: you stop when the emulsion is right. Everything depends on how slowly the oil goes in at the start.
- The hinge: the first spoonful of oilTwo yolks will carry roughly 1 to 1 1/2 cups of oil, but the first 2 tablespoons must go in literally drop by drop while you whisk without pause. Once the mixture has visibly thickened and gone pale, you can move to a thin steady stream.
- YieldTwo yolks and a cup of oil give about 1 1/4 cups of sauce — enough to dress salad for six, or to coat a small side of salmon as described.
- Raw yolksNothing here is cooked. If you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurized shell eggs or pasteurized yolks; they emulsify normally. Keep the finished sauce refrigerated and use it within two or three days.
- Everything at room temperatureCold yolks and cold oil are the usual cause of a broken sauce. Let both sit out for half an hour. If it does split, start a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and beat the broken mixture into it a spoonful at a time.
- The oilA nineteenth-century cook would most likely have used olive oil. Modern extra-virgin can turn bitter when worked hard, especially in a blender; a mild olive oil, or half olive and half neutral oil, is probably closer to the intended flavour.
- Mustard first, and whyThe instruction to mix mustard with the yolks before any oil is not fussiness — mustard is a powerful emulsifier and makes the sauce far harder to break. Half a teaspoon of dry mustard or Dijon per two yolks.
- Seasoning by tasteStart with about a tablespoon of vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and a pinch of cayenne, then adjust. Vinegar also thins the sauce, so add it at the end once the body is right: "nearly as thick as soft butter" means it holds a soft peak on the whisk.
- Pickled salmonThis meant salmon cured in a spiced vinegar brine, a common way of keeping cooked fish before refrigeration. Cold poached salmon or good hot-smoked salmon gives the same effect on the platter.
- The garnishesBoiled peeled chestnuts, cocktail onions and sliced cucumber are meant to ring the fish, not be folded in — the point is a masked centrepiece with contrast around the edge. Vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts save the peeling.
Mayonnaise is often traced to the port of Mahón on Menorca, though that derivation is traditional rather than documented; it was established in French cookery by the early nineteenth century and, by the time this book appeared in 1878, thoroughly at home in American kitchens as the dressing that separated a proper cold table from a plain one. Housekeeping in Old Virginia was assembled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by named and initialled housekeepers, and "Mrs. E. P., Cin." — Cincinnati — is a reminder that the book's network reached well beyond Virginia. The masked salmon it describes, coated thickly in sauce and ringed with chestnuts and pickled onions, belongs to the era's fashion for elaborate cold dishes served at buffet suppers, where meat and fish could stand on the sideboard and the sauce did the decorative work. "Sana" is unexplained in the text and its meaning is unclear.