Tomato Salad
8 large tomatoes. 1 tablespoonful made mustard. 1 tablespoonful salad oil. 2 tablespoonfuls white sugar. 4 hard-boiled eggs. 1 raw egg beaten. 2 teaspoonfuls salt. 1 saltspoon nearly full cayenne pepper. 3/4 teacup vinegar. First rub the yolks of eggs smooth, adding mustard, oil, sugar, salt, pepper and beaten raw egg-then the vinegar. The tomatoes should be peeled and sliced and set in the refrigerator-the dressing also.
Just before serving, cover the tomatoes with ice broken up; sprinkle over a little salt and pour over the dressing.--Mrs. S. T.
A cooked-yolk dressing in the old Virginia style, thinned with a great deal of vinegar and served over iced tomato slices. Two things need attention: the measurements and the ice.
- Made mustard"Made" mustard means mustard already mixed with liquid, whether bought ready-made or mixed at home from powder, rather than dry powder stirred in as-is. Any smooth, mild prepared mustard will serve.
- Saltspoon and teacupA saltspoon is usually reckoned at about 1/4 teaspoon, so the cayenne is a scant quarter teaspoon. A teacup of the period is commonly taken as about 6 fluid ounces, which would make 3/4 teacup roughly 1/2 cup of vinegar plus a tablespoon, though teacup sizes were not standard.
- The vinegar is the variableHalf a cup of vinegar against one tablespoon of oil gives a very sharp dressing by modern taste, and the sugar is there to balance it. Add the vinegar gradually and stop when it tastes right rather than pouring it all in.
- Raw eggThe single beaten raw egg is never cooked; it is there to thicken and emulsify. Use a pasteurized egg if you are serving anyone elderly, pregnant, very young or immune-compromised.
- The leftover whitesOnly the four yolks go into the dressing; the recipe does not say what to do with the whites. Chopping them over the finished salad is one obvious use.
- About the broken iceThe recipe already chills the tomatoes and dressing in the refrigerator, and the broken ice is a further layer of cold at the table. It waters down the dressing, so chilling both thoroughly and skipping the ice gives a better plate.
- Salting and drainingPeel the tomatoes by a brief dip in boiling water. Salting sliced tomatoes draws out juice; salt them just before the dressing goes on, or pour off the liquid so the dressing is not diluted twice.
- YieldEight large tomatoes and this quantity of dressing will serve eight generously as a side salad. The dressing keeps a day or two covered in the refrigerator.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housekeepers, appeared at a time when recipe books were content to serve the tomato raw and cold, where earlier cooks had generally stewed it at length. The dressing here belongs to a family of thick yolk-and-vinegar dressings that predate bottled mayonnaise, made with cooked yolks for body because a stable oil emulsion whisked by hand was slow work. Ice was cut, shipped and stored at cost, and the instruction to cover the tomatoes with broken ice, on top of the refrigerator the recipe already names, points to a household with ready access to it. Contributions signed only with initials, like this one from "Mrs. S. T.", run throughout the book and reflect its origin as a collective effort among acquaintances rather than the work of a single author.