WE CONCLUDE OUR extended presentation of select recipes from the 1923 edition of The Calorie Cook Book, by Mary Dickerson Donahey: “Menus for Reducing—for Upbuilding—for Maintenance,” available in the Public Domain, with a special addendum, because we kept thinking about a previous week’s recipe for Pepper Hash Sandwiches, which called for “any one of the thick salad dressings.” We realized later that we had never identified any salad dressings, and we couldn’t figure out which ones were “thick.” Some of them have the word “thick” or “thicken” in them, but anyway, in the interest of culinary completeness, we will present—in two installments—the dressings in the “Dressings, Sauces, and Icings” section of Ms. Dickerson Donahey’s book, and maybe you can figure out which ones are “thick.”
Boiled Mayonnaise Dressing
2108 Calories
2 tbsps. oil
2 tbsps. flour
1/8 cup vinegar
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp. mustard
1 cup boiling water
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 tsp. salt
Dash of cayenne pepper
Mix the two tablespoonfuls of oil and the two of flour into a paste. Add the vinegar, lemon juice, and one cup of boiling water, stirring it in slowly. Cook this mixture five minutes, stirring all the time. Pour it, hot, over two well beaten eggs, beating as you pour, and keep on beating till the mass is cool. Then add slowly one cup of oil and the seasoning. This recipe sounds like a maniac’s dream, I admit. But try it—it is good! It is not quite so rich as the regular mayonnaise, made from only oil and eggs, and it very, very rarely “goes wrong,” which is a relief to cooks used to the utterly depraved fashion in which oil and eggs are apt to behave when they are requested to blend. Also it keeps well—I’ve had it keep a week, in summer, in a woods-cottage where there was no ice or cellar. I generally double the recipe and put it up in half-pint jars. If you wish you can use three eggs, put the yolks only in the mayonnaise and have the whites for a cake or meringue.
Mayonnaise
2690 Calories
Yolk of 2 eggs
2 tbsps. of lemon juice
2 tbsps. vinegar
1 1/2 cups oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp mustard
Dash cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
Mix all the seasonings together first; add the yolks of the eggs; beat together, and when thoroughly mixed, stir in just a little of the vinegar. Then begin to add your oil, gradually, oh, very gradually, if you would avert disaster! Stir constantly, and as the mixture thickens thin it with the vinegar and lemon juice. Add these and the oil till all is used. It helps to have the bowl very cold and the oil very, very cold. To make this dressing it seems necessary to have superhuman skill, or superhuman patience, and sometimes both.
If you think you know which of these items are “thick,” kindly communicate with us at hmmweekly@substack.com.