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Sauce for Salad or Fish
Yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, mashed well with mixed mustard, pepper, salt, three tablespoonfuls salad oil, three of vinegar and one of tomato capsup.--Mrs. J. H. F.
A cooked-yolk dressing of the sort that preceded mayonnaise in American household books — no raw egg, no emulsifying whisk work, just mashed yolks carrying the oil and vinegar. The whole thing takes five minutes once the eggs are boiled.
- The hinge: mash the yolks to a paste firstWork the two yolks with the mustard, salt and pepper into a smooth paste before any liquid goes in. Add the oil a little at a time, then the vinegar; poured in all at once the yolks stay grainy and the sauce separates on the plate.
- "Mixed mustard"This means mustard already made into a paste with liquid, as opposed to dry mustard flour. Any smooth prepared mustard works; about a teaspoon suits this quantity. Dry mustard can be used but should be slaked in a little of the vinegar first.
- "Tomato capsup"Nineteenth-century tomato catsup was thin, vinegary and heavily spiced with clove, mace and cayenne — closer to a spiced tomato sauce than to modern bottled ketchup, which is far sweeter. If using modern ketchup, expect a noticeably sweeter dressing; a dash of hot sauce or a pinch of ground clove brings it nearer the original.
- "Salad oil"In this period the term usually meant olive oil, though by the 1870s cottonseed oil was also being sold under that name in America. A light olive oil or a neutral oil both work; a strong peppery oil will fight the mustard.
- VinegarThe recipe does not say which vinegar; cider vinegar would have been an ordinary household choice. Three tablespoons to three of oil is a sharp one-to-one ratio by the standards of modern dressings — taste before serving and cut it with a little water or a second spoon of oil if it bites too hard.
- YieldA scant half cup (the oil and vinegar alone come to six tablespoons), enough to dress a salad for four or to sauce two or three portions of cold fish. It does not keep well; make it the day it is used.
- The leftover whitesThe recipe uses only yolks. Chop the whites and scatter them over the salad or the fish.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, is full of these signed, telegraphic recipes — a set of proportions from Mrs. J. H. F. and nothing more, on the assumption that the reader already knew what a salad dressing should look like. Cooked-yolk dressings were one common American approach to salad, alongside raw-egg mayonnaise, which was already printed in American cookbooks by this date. By the 1870s bottled and homemade tomato catsups were common in Southern store-closets, used much the way Worcestershire or hot sauce is used now — a spoonful stirred into gravies, sauces and dressings for color and sharpness. The title's pairing of salad and cold fish reflects a common use; cold boiled fish with a sharp dressing suited summer households where the main cooking was done in the cool of the morning.