(For lettuce or fruit salad.)
Mix half a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, white or paprica, and four tablespoonfuls of oil; add gradually one tablespoonful of claret and one tablespoonful of lemon juice or vinegar.
Mayonnaise Dressing.
Ingredients.
- The yolks of 2 raw eggs.
- 1 pint of olive oil.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar.
- 2 tablespoonfuls of lemon juice.
- ½ a teaspoonful of salt.
- A few grains of cayenne or paprica.
If desired,—
- 1 teaspoonful, each, of mustard and powdered sugar.
Method.—An amateur will probably find it helpful to have all the utensils and ingredients thoroughly chilled, but the professional salad-maker thinks it expedient to have the ingredients and utensils of the same temperature as the room in which the dressing is to be served. Beat the yolks with a small wooden spoon or silver fork, add the condiments and mix again; then add one teaspoonful of vinegar, and, when well mixed with the other ingredients, add the oil, at first drop by drop. When the mixture has become of good consistency the oil may be added faster. When it is too thick to beat well, add a little of the lemon juice, then more oil, and so on alternately, until the ingredients are used. If a very heavy dressing is desired, as when it is to be put on with forcing-bag and tubes for a garnish, an additional half a cup of oil may be added without increasing the quantity of acid.
In preparing mayonnaise, there is absolutely no danger of curdling, if the eggs be fresh and the oil be added slowly, especially if the materials and utensils have been thoroughly chilled. If the yolks do not thicken when beaten with the condiments, but spread out over the bowl, you have sufficient indication that they will not thicken upon the addition of the oil, and it were better to select others and begin again. Take care to add the teaspoonful of acid to the yolks and condiments before beginning to drop in the oil, as this lessens the liability of the mixture to curdle.