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Mayonnaise Without Oil
In a saucepan put I salt-spoonful of ground mustard, 1½ of a teaspoonful of salt, 1/4 of a teaspoonful of white pepper or a dash of cayenne, 1/2 of a cupful of vinegar and 1 tablespoonful of butter; set over the fire where it will heat without boiling. Into a double boiler drop 2 large or 3 small eggs; beat them just enough to mix and add I large tablespoonful of butter cut into bits.
Stir until the egg is slightly warmed and the butter begins to melt, then add gradually the vinegar mixture, stirring all the time. Continue the stirring until the mixture thickens. During the thickening process the upper boiler should be lifted from the fire a number of times, as if it thickens too rapidly it is almost sure to curdle.
When properly made it is very thick and creamy, and if strained into a glass jar, covered and set in a cool place it may be kept for two weeks or more.
This is a boiled dressing rather than a true emulsion of oil and yolk, and the whole thing succeeds or fails on heat control. Keep the egg mixture well below a simmer and add the hot vinegar slowly, or you will have sweet scrambled eggs in vinegar.
- The hinge: never let it boilThe eggs thicken at roughly 160-175F, and curdle above that. The instruction to lift the top pan off the heat repeatedly is the real technique here; keep the water beneath at a bare shiver, not a rolling boil, and pull the pan the moment the mixture coats the spoon.
- A salt-spoonfulThe salt-spoon was a small serving spoon holding about a quarter of a teaspoon. So a scant 1/4 teaspoon of dry mustard.
- The salt quantityThe printed page gives one and a half teaspoonfuls of salt, which is what the text above now reads. Salt to that level suits a full half-cup of vinegar, but correct at the end, when the dressing is cool and you can taste it properly.
- The stray capital IWhere the text reads "I salt-spoonful," read the numeral 1. The capital letter is a transcription artifact, not an abbreviation.
- Vinegar strengthVinegars of this period varied in strength and may have been weaker than today's standard 5 percent. Half a cup of modern vinegar to two eggs is sharp; cutting it with a couple of tablespoons of water softens it.
- Rescuing a curdled batchIf it breaks, take it off the heat at once, set the pan in cold water and beat hard with a whisk, or push it through a fine sieve. The recipe's own instruction to strain into the jar will catch any small lumps.
- Yield and textureAbout one cup. It thickens further as it chills, because the butter sets, so expect something closer to a spoonable sauce than a pourable dressing straight from the refrigerator; loosen with a spoonful of cream or water.
- KeepingTwo weeks in a cool larder was optimistic even then. This is a cooked egg sauce with no preservative beyond the vinegar: refrigerate it and use within four or five days.
Boiled dressings like this one were the everyday American salad sauce well before jarred mayonnaise reached grocery shelves, and books of economical cookery recommended them. Salad oil was expensive, sold in small bottles, and went rancid quickly in a warm kitchen, while butter, eggs and vinegar were already in the house; a cooked dressing also spared the cook the patient dribbling of oil that a real mayonnaise demands, and forgave the household that had no ice. The title is a little defensive about it, and the distinction it papers over is one American labelling law still draws in some form: mayonnaise is defined by its oil content, while salad dressing is a separate, lower-oil product. Versions of this cooked sauce survive in the dressings traditionally used for potato salad, cole slaw and wilted greens throughout the Midwest and the South.