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Mayonnaise Dressing
INGREDIENTS.
The yolks of 2 raw eggs.
1 pint of olive oil. 2 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice. 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. 1/2 a teaspoonful of salt. A few grains of cayenne or paprica.
If desired, - 1 teaspoonful, each, of mustard and powdered sugar.
Method. An amateur will probably find it helpful to have all the utensils and ingredients thoroughly chilled, but the professional salad-maker thinks it expedient to have the ingredients and utensils of the same temperature as the room in which the dressing is to be served. Beat the yolks with a small wooden spoon or silver fork, add the condiments and mix again; then add one teaspoonful of vinegar, and, when well mixed with the other ingredients, add the oil, at first drop by drop. When the mixture has become of good consistency the oil may be added faster. When it is too thick to beat well, add a little of the lemon juice, then more oil, and so on alternately, until the ingredients are used. If a very heavy dressing is desired, as when it is to be put on with forcing-bag and tubes for a garnish, an additional half a cup of oil may be added without increasing the quantity of acid.
In preparing mayonnaise, there is absolutely no danger of curdling, if the eggs be fresh and the oil be added slowly, especially if the materials and utensils have been thoroughly chilled. If the yolks do not thicken when beaten with the condiments, but spread out over the bowl, you have sufficient indication that they will not thicken upon the addition of the oil, and it were better to select others and begin again. Take care to add the teaspoonful of acid to the yolks and condiments before beginning to drop in the oil, as this lessens the liability of the mixture to curdle.
A classic hand-beaten mayonnaise in the proportions still used today: roughly one cup of oil per yolk, with acid added in stages. A few of the book's assurances need qualifying.
- Quantities in modern termsA pint of olive oil is 2 cups (about 475 ml). With two yolks and 4 tablespoons of acid, the finished dressing comes to roughly 2 1/2 cups, enough for a large party salad. Halving everything is more practical for one meal.
- Choose the oil carefullyTwo cups of a peppery modern extra-virgin olive oil will make a dressing that turns bitter once emulsified, and beating aggravates it. Use a mild olive oil, or cut it half and half with a neutral oil.
- Curdling is in fact possibleThe claim that there is "absolutely no danger of curdling" is optimistic. If the emulsion breaks, start a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and beat the split mixture into it drop by drop; nothing is wasted.
- The hinge: acid before oilThe last sentence is the one that matters. A teaspoon of vinegar beaten into the yolks and seasonings before any oil goes in thins the yolks slightly and makes the emulsion far more forgiving.
- UtensilsThe wooden spoon and silver fork are the tools the book names; period cooks did commonly avoid iron and tin with acid mixtures, though the recipe itself gives no reason. Stainless steel, glass or ceramic is fine; avoid unlined copper or aluminium. A balloon whisk is faster than either tool named, and a food processor or immersion blender will do the whole thing in a minute, though the oil must still go in slowly at the start.
- "Paprica" and the optional seasoningsPaprika, in one of the spellings then current. The teaspoon each of mustard and powdered sugar is worth taking up: dry mustard is itself an emulsifier and adds insurance as well as flavour.
- The heavy piping versionA "forcing-bag and tubes" is a piping bag and nozzles. The extra half cup of oil without more acid gives a stiff mayonnaise that holds a shape on cold salmon or eggs; it will be noticeably blander, so season it a little harder.
- Raw yolks and storageThe yolks are never cooked. Use the freshest eggs you can, or pasteurized eggs if serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised. Keep the finished dressing covered and refrigerated and use it within three or four days.
Mayonnaise is often traced to the French kitchen of the mid-eighteenth century, though the word itself is not documented in print until the early nineteenth; the most repeated story links the name to Mahon on Menorca, but the derivation has never been settled. By the time this book appeared, at the turn of the twentieth century, the sauce had become a mainstay of the American cooking-school era: chicken salad, lobster salad and moulded aspics all depended on it, and bringing up a pint of oil by hand without breaking the emulsion was the kind of skill such books expected. The passage's split between the "amateur," told to chill everything, and the "professional salad-maker," who works at room temperature, is there in the text, a household manual written with one eye on the caterer's kitchen.