No. 608
Mayonnaise Cardinal
Sauce Mayonnaise Cardinal
A tinted, seasoned mayonnaise for cold lobster, salmon, crab or a chaud-froid platter. The work is all in the coral paste; get that smooth and the rest is folding.
- Lobster coralThe coral is the roe of a female lobster, black-green when raw and scarlet only once cooked. Coral from a boiled lobster is what gives the red; raw roe will read greenish rather than red. One ounce is roughly two tablespoons.
- Vegetal carmineA red colouring sold to nineteenth-century kitchens; the name implies a vegetable source, as against carmine proper, which is made from cochineal insects, though what was actually sold under the name varied. Neither is on a domestic shelf now; use a few drops of food-grade red colouring, or lean on sweet paprika or a spoonful of tomato paste.
- English mustardMost likely dry mustard powder rather than the prepared paste in a jar, though the book does not say. If using prepared English mustard, start with half the amount, since it already carries vinegar and salt.
- Sieve the paste firstPound the coral, mustard, salt, cayenne and lemon juice to a smooth paste and force it through a fine sieve or tamis before it meets the mayonnaise, as the recipe directs; sieving after the mayonnaise is in risks the emulsion and leaves the paste gritty.
- Lemon juice and the emulsionTwo lemons is about 1/4 cup, a lot of liquid for a pint of mayonnaise. Note that the recipe has the mayonnaise mixed slowly into the seasoned coral rather than the reverse; either way work slowly and taste as you go, since too much acid too fast will split the sauce.
- A pintRanhofer worked in US measure, so a pint is 2 cups of mayonnaise. Finished, the sauce comes to roughly 2 1/2 cups, enough to dress cold lobster or poached salmon for eight to ten.
- Raw yolksThe base mayonnaise (No. 606) is uncooked egg yolk and stays uncooked here. Use pasteurized eggs or a good commercial mayonnaise if serving anyone elderly, pregnant, very young or immunocompromised, and keep the sauce refrigerated; it holds a day or two at most before the colour dulls.
The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this sauce belongs to the long French tradition of naming anything cardinal-red for what is generally said to be the scarlet of a cardinal's robes. In the classical repertoire the hot Sauce Cardinal is a lobster-butter b techamel; this is its cold counterpart, built on mayonnaise and coral instead, and it sits among the book's general cold sauces. The frank use of added colouring is worth noting: before the pure food laws of the early twentieth century, colouring appears to have been unremarkable in professional kitchens, and a chef expected a garnished cold buffet to read from across the dining room.