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Salt (Few grains cayenne tablespoons)
Yolks 2 eggs. 1/4 cup hot water. Few grains cayenne 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon vinegar 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley Add oil slowly to egg yolks, then pour on gradually vinegar and water. Cook over boiling water until mixture thickens, then add seasonings and parsley.
This entry has come down to us with its ingredient list truncated — the heading swallowed the salt and the tablespoons of something, and the egg yolks and water appear only in the method. What survives is recognisably a cooked oil-and-egg dressing, a cousin of hollandaise made with olive oil rather than butter.
- The missing quantitiesThe method calls for egg yolks and water that are never listed. Cooked dressings of this kind often use two egg yolks and a little water to roughly this quantity of oil and vinegar, but the book gives no figure here. Treat any amount as an inference, not as the book's own instruction.
- Cook over boiling water, not on the burnerThis is the hinge. The mixture goes in the top of a double boiler over simmering water; direct heat will scramble the yolks before the sauce has a chance to thicken. Keep the water below a hard boil despite the wording.
- Add the oil slowlyThe emulsion is built the same way as mayonnaise — drops at first, then a thin stream, whisking constantly. Rushing it gives a broken, greasy sauce that no amount of subsequent cooking will bring back together.
- Olive oil in 1896Olive oil -- The olive oil on sale to nineteenth-century American households was generally milder than what is sold today. A modern peppery extra-virgin will dominate the parsley and vinegar; a light or refined olive oil is likely closer to the intended flavour.
- VinegarThe book specifies only "vinegar"; plain white or cider vinegar suits it. Wine vinegar works and is gentler. The acid is part of the balance of the sauce, so do not cut the quantity.
- DonenessThickened means coating the back of a spoon at roughly 160-170F. Past that the yolks curdle. Pull it from the heat while it still looks slightly loose; it firms as it cools.
- Yield and useAbout half a cup — enough to dress a salad for four or to spoon over cold poached fish, chicken or hard-boiled eggs. Serve it warm or cold; it will not reheat without separating.
Cooked salad dressings of this type were a staple of nineteenth-century American cookery. Building a raw emulsion by hand takes patience and a steady arm, while a cooked dressing thickens partly through the setting of the egg. Such dressings were poured over cold boiled salmon, cold fowl or sliced tongue as much as over greens — a reliable, teachable preparation, where the technique — slow addition, gentle heat, constant stirring — mattered more than any single ingredient.