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French Dressing
teaspoon salt teaspoon white pepper Pinch of mustard 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon vinegar 4 tablespoons olive oil teaspoon paprika teaspoon powdered sugar Mix dry ingredients, add oil and stir till thoroughly mixed; then add vinegar and lemon juice, a few drops at a time and beat till an emulsion is and lemon juice, a few drops at a time and beat till an emulsion is formed. Or, ingredients may all be placed in a bottle and shaken vigorously together to form an emulsion . A dressing for fruit salad can be made by adding cup of cream whipped to the above quantity of French dressing. 1 quart scalded milk 1 cup boiled rice
A standard turn-of-the-century vinaigrette, built oil-first rather than the modern acid-first method. The proportions given work out to roughly four parts oil to two parts acid.
- Missing fractionsThe salt, pepper, paprika and sugar quantities have lost their fractions in this printing; the original figures cannot be recovered from the page. Season to taste, starting small with the pepper and paprika.
- Order of mixingThe instruction to stir the dry seasonings into the oil first, then dribble in the acid a few drops at a time, is the hinge of the method; the salt will not dissolve until the vinegar and lemon juice go in.
- The bottle methodShaking in a sealed jar gives a looser, quicker emulsion that separates sooner. Whisking or beating as described holds together longer, though neither will stay emulsified indefinitely.
- Powdered sugarFinely powdered sugar dissolves faster in a cold mixture than granulated; granulated will work if whisked into the vinegar rather than the oil.
- White pepperKeeps the dressing pale and unspecked; black pepper can be substituted, with a slight difference in flavour as well as look.
- Fruit-salad variationThe cream quantity is also missing its fraction and cannot be recovered; whip the cream and fold in as much as suits the quantity of dressing. Fold gently and use promptly, as the acid will act on the whipped cream.
- YieldAbout 6 tablespoons, a scant 1/2 cup.
French dressing meant something quite different in 1900 than it does on a modern supermarket shelf: simply oil, vinegar or lemon, salt and pepper, mixed in the French manner, with paprika and a pinch of sugar as an American softening. The sweet, orange, tomato-based bottled version came later and largely displaced the name. Cookbooks like this one leaned on the vocabulary of the cooking schools of the period.