No. 611

Mayonnaise Sauce with Arrowroot

Sauce Mayonnaise a l'Arrowroot

In case any difficulty be found to raise a mayonnaise either on account of defective oil, or on account of the weather, the following manner will explain how always to obtain a good result; Dilute in cold water in a small saucepan, a heaping spoonful of arrowroot or simply fecula; be careful there are no lumps in it, then heat it over a slow fire, stirring well with a spoon, until it forms a smooth paste, having it hard, in preference to soft. As soon as this is done, pour it into a vessel, and beat it with a spoon until it loses its greatest heat, then mix in a pinch of salt, a little red pepper, and a pinch of ground mustard, and three or four raw egg-yolks. Work well the preparation while pouring in very slowly, two or three gills of good sweet oil, alternating it with a dash of vinegar.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is an insurance policy rather than a sauce in its own right: a cooked starch paste gives the emulsion a base that will hold even when the oil is cold or the yolks are thin. A few of Ranhofer's terms need translating before you start.

The hinge: let the paste coolThe starch must lose enough heat that it will not cook the yolks when they go in, but still be at room temperature rather than chilled and rubbery. Beating it in a bowl as directed does both jobs at once; if it stiffens too much, work in a teaspoon of cold water.
GillsA gill is half a cup, so two or three gills is 1 to 1 1/2 cups of oil. With four yolks plus the starch base that gives roughly 2 cups of finished sauce.
FeculaNineteenth-century French usage for pure starch, usually potato starch. Cornstarch behaves much the same here; arrowroot tends to set clearer and less pasty than cornstarch.
Heaping spoonfulRead this as a tablespoon, and use about 1/4 cup of cold water to slake it. The instruction to err on the hard side rather than the soft is deliberate — a loose paste dilutes the emulsion and the sauce slackens as it stands.
Sweet oilOil that is not rancid, generally a mild olive oil. A modern light olive oil or a neutral seed oil both work; a strong extra-virgin will turn bitter when whipped this hard.
Red pepperCayenne, a pinch. Ground mustard means dry mustard powder, which is itself an emulsifier and earns its place beyond flavour.
Adding the oilVery slowly means drop by drop until the sauce visibly thickens, then in a thin stream. The vinegar goes in by dashes between additions of oil, both to season and to thin the sauce enough to accept more fat.
Eggs and keepingThe yolks are never cooked. Use pasteurized eggs if you are serving anyone very young, elderly, pregnant or immune-compromised, keep the sauce refrigerated, and use it within three or four days.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that house's repertoire, which is why the cold sauce chapter runs to many mayonnaise variations rather than one. This particular entry is a professional's troubleshooting note: in a restaurant kitchen an emulsion that breaks during service is a costly failure, and the causes Ranhofer names — oil past its best, a hot or humid room — were harder to control before reliable refrigeration and consistently fresh oil. Adding a cooked starch paste widens the margin for error enormously, and a similar principle can be seen in the flour-based boiled dressings of American home cookery. The name itself is unsettled: it is most often traced to Port Mahon on Minorca, taken by the French in 1756, though rival derivations from manier, to handle, and from the town of Bayonne have circulated just as long.