Today many fine restaurants both here and abroad still set up cold buffets for summer luncheon service, and some places continue the custom in winter, too. Many also provide a cold buffet for summer dinners. The buffet tables are especially designed and have long, oblong insets of metal to hold the chopped ice on which to place the silver dishes of food. As a rule, there are twenty to thirty different cold dishes: salads of many kinds, fish in aspic and chaud-froid sauces, eggs stuffed with various fillings, cold meats and poultry, foie gras and other pâtés, fresh fruit and fruit compotes. Many of the tables also include a small fountain in the center to add the refreshing coolness of running water. This is certainly a convenient way of serving food, especially for the hostess with a large group to entertain. The food is prepared long ahead of time, and serving requires so much less help. The foods don't stand so long on the table at a home party as in a restaurant. So if they are well chilled before being placed there, they will remain cold during the serving, and ice under them is not necessary.
But to get back to cold sauces—and I speak now of sauces for appetizers, entrees, and salads, not of dessert sauces. They are a piquant group, refreshing with the spiciness of herbs, pickles, or mustard, tangy with the sharpness of vinegar or lemon juice. We think of them with all cold foods but especially with fish and shellfish, and anything bland, if bolstered with one of these piquant sauces, becomes actually appetite-provoking. The exception is mayonnaise whose appeal lies in a certain smooth delicacy rather than a pronounced seasoning. Mayonnaise, incidentally, is a sauce that has really stood the test of time. Cardinal Richelieu, credited with discovering this combination of oil and egg yolks which he flavored with lemon juice, did so back in the early 1600's. Its popularity has never waned. We still make the same sauce the same way today.
Making mayonnaise, or any of its variations, presents one major problem. Unless the right care is taken when adding the oil to the egg yolks, the mixture will separate and be a curdled mass instead of an emulsion. Almost everyone experiences this at least once. I remember as a child watching my mother whip up the sunny-colored mixture and thinking how easy that was—and then trying one Sunday morning when she was at church to surprise her by making a bowl of mayonnaise for the chicken that had cooled in Saturday's pot-au-feu. I was the one who was surprised when she went to spoon out my masterpiece and it broke down into a tragic curdled mess. Many years later when I was a guest at the home of one of New York's well-known food purveyors, the young son of this family of gourmets came and tugged at my sleeve and led me to the kitchen where a terrible thing had happened. He was to show off his culinary skill by preparing a fish dish with mayonnaise for supper—and the mayonnaise had curdled! What to do? He was almost in tears. So I showed him what my mother had taught me those many years before—to take another egg yolk and gradually and thoroughly beat the separated mixture into it. It all pulls together—and that's a trick to remember!
Cold sauces are, of course, essential for the cold buffet but their usefulness doesn't end here. Practically every meal includes either an appetizer, a salad, or a dessert using a cold sauce. And many hot dishes are sauced with cold sauces—sautéed fish with sauce tartare or sauce rémoulade, or calves' brains or head with vinaigrette are just a couple of examples of hot foods traditionally accompanied by cold sauces.
Mayonnaise comes first in the cold sauce group because of its popularity and also because it is a foundation for so many variations. Follow the rules and it is easy enough to make, so don't hesitate to tackle it. For consistent success, just remember these four points. One, have both egg yolks and oil at room temperature—not just out of the refrigerator. Two, don't try to combine more oil with the yolks than they can hold in emulsion—about 1 cup of oil to 2 egg yolks is correct. Three, add the first spoonfuls of oil a few drops at a time and after that in a thin stream like a thread, whipping the mixture all the time, adding a little of the vinegar whenever the mixture gets too heavy. Four, don't store mayonnaise in an automatic refrigerator, or the extreme cold will congeal the oil and cause separation. Store homemade mayonnaise in a cool place or in the special compartment of the refrigerator that is less cold than the rest. Follow these simple rules, and you will have no trouble.
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