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Mayonnaise Dressing (Yolk of one egg salt mustard) (II)
Yolk of one egg, salt, mustard and cayenne pepper to taste; stir these together; add olive oil slowly, stirring constantly until it is thick; add a third of a teaspoonful of vinegar or a little lemon juice; beat the white of the egg to a stiff froth and stir gently into the oil.
Italian dressing for salads is adjudged by epicures to be more delicious for salads than French dressing. The ingredients for both are the same, with the exception of pepper. Critics claim that the Italian dressing is more scientifically proportioned and handled, and that consequently better results are obtained. To make it, sprinkle the salad with salt and oil until, having tossed the leaves about, they are well coated. Then add enough vinegar to give the right "snap," about one tablespoonful to seven of oil being the right amount.
For a French dressing one tablespoonful of oil to three of vinegar is the generally accepted proportion, with a half saltspoonful of paprika and a half teaspoonful of salt. Put the dry ingredients and the oil into a bowl and stir until the salt dissolves; then add the vinegar and stir thoroughly. The addition to a mayonnaise of three or four drops of garlic extract imports a flavor not easily recognized, but which adds much to the deliciousness of the salad. Some use also a little dash of mace in the mayonnaise. With this and the garlic an indescribable "far away" flavor is given which cannot offend the most delicate taste.
Two dressings and a lecture, run together in one paragraph. The mayonnaise instruction is the recipe proper; the rest is comparative commentary with usable proportions buried in it.
- Oil quantity is unstatedOne yolk will carry roughly three-quarters to one cup of oil before the emulsion is at risk. Add the first tablespoon or two literally drop by drop, then in a thin stream once it has taken.
- A saltspoonfulA quarter teaspoon. The French dressing here calls for half a saltspoon of paprika, so an eighth of a teaspoon.
- The French dressing proportion is inverted by modern standardsOne tablespoon of oil to three of vinegar is punishingly sharp; the usual modern vinaigrette reverses it, three or four parts oil to one of vinegar. The Italian proportion given in the same paragraph — seven oil to one vinegar — is closer to what a modern palate expects, and the page reports that 'epicures' and 'critics' favoured it.
- The beaten whiteFolding stiff egg white into finished mayonnaise lightens it into something closer to a mousseline. It will not hold its lift for long, so make it shortly before serving rather than holding it.
- Raw eggNothing here is cooked. If you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurized shell eggs, and keep the finished dressing refrigerated and eat it the same day.
- Garlic extractA bottled flavouring of the period. A clove crushed with the salt and left in the finished dressing for twenty minutes, then removed, gives a similar faint background note.
- MaceThe lacy outer covering of the nutmeg, still sold ground. A pinch is the whole of it; more and the "far away" flavour becomes recognisably nutmeg, which is not the effect wanted.
- If it breaksStart a fresh yolk in a clean bowl and beat the split mixture into it a spoonful at a time. Cold ingredients split more readily, so have the egg and oil at room temperature.
- YieldDepending on how much oil the yolk takes, roughly a cupful.
The name is generally traced to Mahón, the port on Minorca taken by a French force in 1756, though the derivation is traditional rather than documented and rival etymologies point to the old French moyeu, meaning egg yolk. What is clear is that by the time this book was compiled, mayonnaise had become an American household staple made at home by hand. The passage also captures a moment when salad itself was being argued over in print: the deference to "epicures" and "critics" on the merits of Italian versus French dressing reflects a period when the correct handling of a leaf was a matter on which one could hold, and publish, an opinion.