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Salad Dressing for One Quart
Have in a cold soup plate a level teaspoon Oriental curry powder, half a teaspoon best French mustard, a light saltspoon English ground mustard, a light saltspoon cayenne pepper, one teaspoon finely chopped, thoroughly washed and drained fresh parsley, half a teaspoon finely chopped, sound, fresh chives (ciboulette), two medium, very sound, freshly peeled and finely chopped shallots (echalote), one-fourth of a small bean of sound, peeled garlic finely crushed, four teaspoons salt and one light teaspoon very fresh, finely ground white pepper, the rind of quarter of a sound lemon, finely chopped. Mix all the ingredients well together with a fork, then add a tablespoon good cool olive oil and with a fork sharply mash the whole until almost to a pulp, gradually add four tablespoons good white wine vinegar, briskly mix again, then transfer the whole into a vessel, add oil and vinegar-two-thirds oil to one-third vinegar-to make up one quart in all; thoroughly mix again, and then press through a strainer into a glass or stone jar and use as required, being very careful always to sharply shake the dressing before pouring it over the salad. The dressing should always be kept in a cold place, covered.
A full quart of French dressing built from a seasoning paste, meant to be mixed once and kept on hand. The proportions in the opening list are for the whole quart, not for a single salad, so resist the urge to scale up.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. "Light" means a scant one, so read the cayenne, English mustard and white pepper as a bare 1/4 teaspoon each.
- A bean of garlicAn English rendering of the French gousse d'ail (literally a pod), i.e. a clove. One quarter of a small clove, crushed, is the whole garlic content of a quart.
- French mustardA smooth prepared mustard, most likely of the Dijon type. The "English ground mustard" alongside it is dry mustard powder, which adds heat and also helps hold the oil and vinegar together when shaken.
- Chives and shallotsCiboulette is chives, échalote the shallot. The insistence on "sound" produce throughout is Filippini's standing refrain; with raw alliums sitting in a keeping dressing it is genuinely to the point.
- The hinge: mash to a pulp firstOne tablespoon of oil goes in and is worked against the seasonings with a fork until the whole is nearly a paste; the first four tablespoons of vinegar are then added gradually. That grinding is what works the curry and mustard through the seasoning base before the bulk of the oil and vinegar are made up.
- Proportions for the make-upTwo-thirds oil to one-third vinegar, added until you have a quart in total — roughly 2 2/3 cups oil to 1 1/3 cups white wine vinegar including what has already gone in. Four teaspoons salt across a quart is about right for a dressing that will be used sparingly.
- StrainingPressing through a strainer removes the chopped solids and leaves a flavoured, clean-pouring dressing. If you would rather keep the parsley and shallot visible, skip it.
- Keeping"A cold place, covered" meant an icebox or cellar; use the refrigerator, in a jar with a tight lid. Even acidified, a dressing carrying raw garlic, shallot and chive is best finished within a week or so. Olive oil will thicken when chilled — let it stand a few minutes and shake hard before pouring, as the recipe insists.
- YieldOne quart. Halve or quarter the whole thing if that sounds like more vinaigrette than your household will use.
Alexander Filippini spent decades in the kitchens of Delmonico's in New York, and The International Cook Book (1906) reads like a professional's notebook: everything in keeping quantities, everything specified as "sound" and "fresh," and French terms left standing beside their English equivalents. The curry powder is the period's signature — commercial "Oriental" curry powder was a standard pantry seasoning in Anglo-American and Franco-American kitchens, used less as an Indian flavour than as a general warm, pungent condiment. Its appearance in a basic French dressing, alongside two mustards and cayenne, marks this as a dressing for plain lettuce and cold vegetables in a house where the salad was expected to have some bite to it, and where the dressing was made by the quart because the kitchen served a table every day.