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Red Mayonnaise
Mix a level teaspoonful of Italian tomato pulp with a teaspoonful of mayonnaise dressing, and when well blended beat very thoroughly into a cup or more of the dressing, or add dressing until the desired tint is attained.
A tinting method rather than a dressing in its own right: it assumes you already have a bowl of mayonnaise on hand and want it pink. The whole trick is in the order of mixing.
- Do the small blend firstThe instruction to mix the tomato with a single teaspoon of mayonnaise before adding the rest is the hinge. Tomato pulp stirred straight into a cup of mayonnaise streaks, and its water can slacken or break the emulsion; slurrying it into a spoonful first gets it fully dispersed.
- Italian tomato pulpThis meant the thick canned tomato conserve sold at Italian groceries, not fresh tomato. Tomato paste is the closest modern equivalent; a thick passata will work but is wetter, so use less and expect a paler tint.
- Quantities are deliberately looseA level teaspoon of paste to a cup of mayonnaise gives a pale coral. The recipe explicitly tells you to keep adding mayonnaise until the shade suits, so work by eye rather than by measure.
- Season after tintingTomato paste brings acidity and a little sweetness. Taste once blended and correct with salt and lemon juice; a few drops of the latter also brightens the pink.
- If it slackensShould the mixture look thin or glossy-broken, beat in a fresh tablespoon of stiff mayonnaise rather than more oil.
- Raw eggPeriod mayonnaise is uncooked yolk. Use a pasteurized-egg mayonnaise, or a commercial one, if serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised.
- Yield and useA cup of dressing will sauce a salad for several. Tinted mayonnaise of this kind was served with cold fish, shellfish, hard-boiled eggs and celery.
Colored mayonnaises were a standing feature of turn-of-the-century American salad work: green from pounded herbs or spinach, yellow from sieved yolk, and pink or red from tomato, beet juice or lobster coral, all serving the era's taste for arranging a cold buffet in contrasting tints. The idea outlived the fashion for tinted platters: a mayonnaise reddened with tomato, sharpened and thinned, is often said to be the ancestor of the pink dressings later sold under names like Russian and Thousand Island.