Home › The World's Kitchen › Mayonnaise Sauce
Mayonnaise Sauce
Place one fresh egg yolk in a small bowl with one tablespoon good vinegar, one saltspoon ground English mustard, two saltspoons salt and a saltspoon cayenne pepper. Briskly beat up the whole together with a wire whisk for two minutes, then add, drop by drop, three-quarters of a gill good cool olive oil, continually mixing while adding it, and continue mixing for four minutes after the oil has been added; add the juice of one-quarter of a sound lemon, mix for one minute more, then use when required.
Place the surplus of the mayonnaise in a cup and put in a cold place, as it will keep in good condition for two or three days.
A classic hand-whisked mayonnaise, written when the only measure of success was a steady wrist. The proportions are sound; only the units and the storage advice need translating.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. So: 1/4 tsp English mustard powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp cayenne — the cayenne is assertive at that level, and a pinch is defensible.
- Three-quarters of a gillTaking the gill as half a cup (4 fl oz), this is about 6 tablespoons of oil to one yolk; on the imperial gill of 5 fl oz it would be nearer 3 1/2 to 4 tablespoons more generous still. Either way it is a modest ratio; a yolk will carry twice as much oil if you want a stiffer sauce.
- The hinge: oil speedThe first tablespoon of oil must go in drop by drop while the whisk never stops. Once the emulsion has visibly thickened and turned pale, you can move to a thin steady stream and finish in a minute rather than four.
- Everything at one temperature"Cool" oil means room temperature, not chilled. A fridge-cold yolk against cool oil is the commonest cause of a split sauce; let the egg sit out for half an hour first.
- If it breaksStart a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and whisk the broken mixture into it drop by drop, exactly as you did the oil. A teaspoon of warm water whisked in will also sometimes bring back a sauce that has only just begun to separate.
- Ground English mustardThis is dry mustard powder, not prepared mustard. Beyond flavour it is a genuine emulsifier and helps the sauce hold; do not leave it out.
- Raw yolk and storageThe yolk is never cooked. Use pasteurized eggs if you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised. "A cold place" would have meant a larder or icebox; refrigerate at 40F or below and keep to the two or three days the recipe allows.
- YieldAbout half a cup — enough to dress a salad for four, or to bind a modest bowl of cold chicken or crab.
Mayonnaise reached print in French cookery in the early nineteenth century and its name is still argued over: the most repeated story traces it to Mahón in Menorca, taken by the French in 1756, while others derive it from manier, to handle or work, or from the old term moyeu for an egg yolk. None of these is documented beyond dispute. By the period of this book mayonnaise was long established in professional cookery, where cold salads of lobster, chicken and vegetables were a fixture of the buffet and the summer menu. The instruction to keep the surplus "in a cold place" points to a larder or icebox rather than mechanical refrigeration, and to a sauce made in the small quantities a household could use up within a couple of days.