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Salad Dressing
(1). Put the cold yolks of two hard-boiled eggs into a basin, mash them until they are quite smooth, add one teaspoonful each of salt and made mustard, one saltspoonful of sugar, and half that quantity of pepper; mix together well, add by degrees one tablespoonful of cream and vinegar, and, when well incorporated, add one tablespoonful each of salad oil and vinegar, and one dessertspoonful of tarragon vinegar. When well mixed it is ready for use. (2.) Put the yolks of two raw eggs into a basin with one teaspoonful of salt and beat them well; then add, a drop at a time, one pint of the best salad-oil. When the oil is well mixed with the eggs, stir in one teaspoonful of made mustard, one tablespoonful of tarragon vinegar, one tablespoonful of chili vinegar, and three or four tablespoonfuls of plain vinegar. Beat together until all these ingredients are well incorporated, then add a small quantity each of sugar and cayenne pepper. Turn the mixture into a bottle, and keep it tightly corked until wanted.
Two dressings under one heading: the first a cooked-yolk dressing thinned with cream, the second a straight hand-beaten mayonnaise. Neither is difficult, but the second lives or dies on how slowly the oil goes in.
- Add the oil drop by drop, and mean itTwo raw yolks will carry a pint of oil only if the first quarter-cup or so is worked in a few drops at a time, with constant beating, until the emulsion visibly thickens. After that the oil can go in a thin steady stream. If it breaks, start a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and beat the split mixture into it slowly.
- A pint of oil is the outer limitA pint of oil is at the upper end of the usual ratio -- roughly a cup of oil per yolk is the standard working proportion, so two yolks to a pint is a full but not extreme load. Halving the oil gives a softer, more forgiving dressing with the same flavor balance.
- Old spoon measuresA saltspoon is 1/4 teaspoon; a dessertspoon is 2 teaspoons. The pepper in the first dressing is therefore about an eighth of a teaspoon.
- Made mustard"Made" mustard means prepared wet mustard, not the dry powder. Dijon or a plain English prepared mustard is a reasonable stand-in.
- Flavored vinegarsTarragon vinegar is still sold and is easily made by steeping a few bruised sprigs in white wine vinegar for a week. Chili vinegar was small hot peppers steeped the same way; a cider or wine vinegar with a pinch of cayenne stands in acceptably.
- Salad oilIn 1896 this meant a light, neutral oil, often refined olive or cottonseed. Modern extra-virgin olive oil will make a heavy, sometimes bitter mayonnaise; use a neutral oil, or cut olive oil with two parts sunflower or grapeseed.
- Raw yolks and storageThe instruction to bottle the mayonnaise and cork it until wanted assumes a cold larder and daily turnover. Use pasteurized eggs if serving anyone elderly, pregnant or immune-compromised, refrigerate immediately, and use within three or four days rather than keeping a standing bottle.
- YieldThe first dressing makes about a third to a half cup, enough for a salad for four. The second makes roughly 2 1/2 cups, which is hotel quantity; scale down unless you are dressing a crowd.
Oscar Tschirky was not a cook by trade but the Waldorf's ma tre d'h tel, and the 1896 book that carries his name reads as a record of what a large New York hotel kitchen actually sent out rather than a chef's personal manifesto. Two dressings under one heading is characteristic of that kind of book: the first, built on mashed hard-boiled yolks and cream, is the older English style of salad dressing, safe to make ahead and cheap on oil; the second is mayonnaise proper, which demanded a steady arm and good oil. The bottling instruction is a reminder that hotels made emulsions in quantity and drew on them through service. Oscar's name is attached most famously to the Waldorf salad, apples and celery bound with mayonnaise.