One egg; one pint of the best salad oil - never use a cheap oil; one tablespoonful of vinegar; half a lemon ; saltspoonful of salt; half a saltspoonful each of mustard and white pepper.

Separate the white and the yolk of the egg. To the latter add the juice of the lemon, the salt, pepper, and mustard. Mix with three or four stirs of a fork. Begin putting in the oil, a few drops at a time, stirring steadily, increasing the quantity as the dressing thickens. When about two-thirds of the oil has been used the vinegar should be added, little by little, and after that the remainder of the oil. The steady stirring of the fork should be unremitting. If oil, egg, and plate have been well chilled before they are used, this dressing may be made in ten or fifteen minutes. Place it on the ice until needed, and just before sending to table whip the white of the egg to a standing froth and stir it lightly into the dressing.

Should the egg and oil curdle and separate, or obstinately refuse to thicken, do not waste time in the futile attempt to stir them to a success. Take another egg and begin again in a fresh plate. When this dressing thickens - as it will, unless there is something radically wrong with egg, oil, or worker - add the curdled dressing carefully, a little at a time, stirring incessantly. The result should be as good a mayonnaise as could be desired. In hot weather especial care should be taken to have the utensils and ingredients alike, ice-cold.

The seasoning may be varied by substituting tarragon for plain vinegar, and by rubbing the bowl in which the dressing is mixed with a split clove of garlic or by using paprica in place of cay-enne.

In fancy salads this mayonnaise may be colored green by the addition of a little spinach-juice (see Green Hollandaise Sauce), or red by adding to it a small amount of powdered lobster coral or of strained tomato-liquor which has been boiled down until it is nearly a jelly. Or the mayonnaise may be made white by stirring lightly into it at the last moment before serving a gill of cream whipped very stiff. If a deep yellow is desired, the beaten white of egg should not be added to the mayonnaise.