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Salad Dressing
Mrs. A. A. Carpenter.
The yolks of four eggs, two-thirds of a cup of oil, red pepper, salt and mustard to taste, the juice of two lemons, and last of all, one cup of thick cream. If the dressing is for chicken salad, use the oil or fat from the chicken instead of sweet oil. Be sure and put the cream in last, just before sending to table.
This is a mayonnaise in the older, softer style — closer to a boiled-dressing-and-cream hybrid than the stiff jarred emulsion. The instruction that matters is the last line: the cream goes in at the table, not before.
- Build the emulsion firstWhisk the yolks with the salt, mustard and cayenne, then add the oil a few drops at a time until it thickens, and only then the lemon juice. Four yolks to two-thirds of a cup of oil is a very yolk-heavy ratio, so the base will be thick and custardy rather than stiff.
- Cream last, and whyLemon juice can thicken and eventually curdle cream that stands in it, so folding the cream in just before serving keeps the dressing pale and pourable. That is plainly the point of the recipe's own closing instruction.
- Sweet oilThe period term for a mild edible oil, usually olive, sometimes almond. A light olive oil or a neutral oil works; a peppery extra-virgin will fight the cream.
- Red pepperCayenne, not paprika and not a fresh chile. A pinch is enough for this quantity.
- MustardMost likely dry mustard powder rather than prepared, though the recipe does not specify. About half a teaspoon; prepared mustard would add vinegar the recipe has not accounted for.
- Chicken fat versionRendered chicken fat is solid or semi-solid when cool and will seize the emulsion. Warm it to a clear liquid, let it cool to just above room temperature, and add it as slowly as you would oil.
- Raw yolksNothing here is cooked. If serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurized eggs or pasteurized yolks in the carton.
- YieldRoughly two cups once the cream is in.
The Home Cook Book belongs to the great wave of North American charity cookbooks of the 1870s, compiled from contributions by named local women and sold to fund a hospital or church; the attribution to Mrs. A. A. Carpenter is the whole point of the format, since the book's authority came from its neighbours rather than a professional chef. Chicken salad was one of the defining company dishes of the era, and a good dressing for it was the kind of thing a woman was known for. The cream finish softens and lightens the dressing at the last moment.