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French Dressing
If the French dressing is made at table, a small china or glass tray, set with oil and vinegar cruets, salt cellar, peppercorn grinder, paprika shaker, bottle of worcestershire sauce, and a bottle of pearl onions, is passed to the person who serves the salad. Small silver stands for holding these ingredients, are now found in the shops.
The French always oil the bowl in which the salad dressing is made with a clove of garlic. Tarragon or estragon vinegar may be used instead of plain vinegar, or some leaves of tarragon, or Estragon, procurable at the large markets, may be cut in bits and sprinkled over the salad.
Ingredients: Three tablespoons of oil; one tablespoon of vinegar; one teaspoon of salt: one-fourth teaspoon of pepper. Mix the oil, salt and pepper together and slowly add the vinegar, stirring constantly. In dressing a salad at the table the dressing may be made in a separate bowl and then poured upon the vegetable, the latter being tossed lightly for a few seconds and then served, or it may be made in the following graceful way: Hold a salad spoon (or a tablespoon) over the salad, put into it the salt and pepper, and then fill with the oil the remaining space; mix with a fork and pour upon the vegetable, distributing well; add the remaining proportion of oil, a spoonful at a time, tossing the salad lightly; at the last add the vinegar, toss again and serve.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING, No. 1-Break the yolks of two eggs into a wide bowl, and set them on ice, or where they will become very cold; (the secret of a creamy mayonnaise dressing lies in keeping all the materials very cold, and taking care throughout the work); also chill one-half pint of oil. If a good egg-beater is at hand, the dressing may be made in a very short time. Beat the yolks thoroughly, add two saltspoons of salt and one of white pepper or paprika and beat again. Stir in drop by drop a little of the oil, and beat with a silver fork or wooden spoon; very graduually put in more oil, and beat always in one direction. When the mixture begins to thicken, add a little vinegar taken from two tablespoons; beat in more oil until the preparation again thickens; then add more vinegar; and so continue in alternation until all the material has been used, when the dressing should be thick and creamy. Should the mayonnaise curdle, begin with a third egg yolk, add a small quantity of oil to the egg, and then by very small quantities add the rest of the dressing. At times a dressing may be quite firm when left, only to be found curdled and disappointing when the time comes to use it. This third egg process will, however, invariably restore it. The onion juice is obtained by grating the onion, holding the grater over the dressing and letting the juice drip into it. If preferred, lemon juice diluted with one-third water may be used instead of vinegar. Tarragon vinegar is sometimes used instead of the ordinary kind.
MAYONNAISE DRESSING, No. 2-To make this dressing, allow one-half cup of oil; two eggs (yolks only); vinegar to thin; one-half teaspoon of made mustard; one-half teaspoon of salt; one-fourth teaspoon of pepper; one-half teaspoon of sugar; six drops of worcestershire sauce. Boil one of the eggs ten minutes, and when cold, take out the yolk, place it in a bowl, and mash it finely with the back of a silver spoon or with a wooden salad masher. When the yolk is like powder, add the yolk of the other egg (raw), and stir until the mixture is smooth; then put in the sugar, salt, pepper, mustard and sauce. When the whole is well mixed, add the oil by degrees, stirring continually; and as soon as all is used thin with vinegar. Place on ice for one hour before using.
Two dressings in one entry: a vinaigrette meant to be assembled in front of the guests, and two versions of hand-beaten mayonnaise. The instructions are sound, but the measures and a few of the assumptions need translating.
- The ratio, and the saltThree parts oil to one part vinegar is still the standard vinaigrette proportion. The teaspoon of salt for four tablespoons of dressing, however, is very heavy by current taste — start with a quarter teaspoon and adjust.
- "Oil" means salad oilAt the time this would have meant a mild olive oil or cottonseed oil. A fruity modern extra-virgin olive oil will dominate; for mayonnaise especially, use a neutral oil or cut the olive oil with one.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. "Two saltspoons of salt" in Mayonnaise No. 1 is half a teaspoon for two yolks and a cup of oil, which is about right.
- Half a pint of oilOne cup, beaten into two yolks, which is a comfortable ratio rather than a strained one. Go slowly at the start and stop if it looks slack rather than pushing the last of the oil in.
- Beating in one directionThis is folklore — the emulsion does not care about direction. What genuinely matters is the rate the oil goes in at the beginning: literally drop by drop until the mixture has visibly thickened, after which you can pour in a thin stream.
- Cold is the real hingeOn keeping things cold -- The book insists everything be very cold, which helps keep the finished sauce firm, and the third-yolk rescue for a broken mayonnaise works as described. A splash of water or vinegar whisked into a broken sauce will often bring it back too, before you spend another egg.
- Raw yolksBoth mayonnaises rely on uncooked egg yolk with no cooking step afterwards. If you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurized eggs or pasteurized yolks, and keep the finished dressing refrigerated and use it within a couple of days.
- "Made mustard" and pearl onionsMade mustard is prepared mustard from the jar, not dry powder. The bottled pearl onions on the table tray are the small pickled onions still sold in jars; the recipe does not say what was done with them, only that they went out with the cruets.
- EstragonEstragon is simply the French name for tarragon — the book lists both as if they were two herbs. Tarragon vinegar is easy to find; fresh tarragon leaves torn over the salad give a brighter version of the same flavour.
- YieldThe vinaigrette as given dresses a salad for four. Mayonnaise No. 1 makes roughly a cup and a quarter; No. 2 about two-thirds of a cup.
"French dressing" here means what a cook today would call a vinaigrette — oil, vinegar, salt, pepper — and the name was associated with the French habit of dressing salad leaves at the last possible moment, rubbing the bowl with garlic and tossing the greens lightly rather than drowning them, a habit the entry itself points to. The sweetened, tomato-tinted orange bottled dressing that later claimed the name in America belongs to a different era of the pantry. What dates this entry most clearly is the tableside ritual: the little tray of cruets, the peppercorn grinder, the paprika shaker, the bottle of Worcestershire and the silver stands "now found in the shops." Butterick, a pattern company writing for aspirational middle-class households, is selling the performance as much as the sauce; and the mayonnaise instructions dwell insistently on keeping everything cold, and on the third-yolk repair for the day the emulsion breaks.