things all the other distressing and depressing that keep happening
in the world, one of the Most depressing is the toughness of the belief thato t it is necessary in order to make mayonnaise drop
oil in in drips, plop, plop, plop.
still 'self I believed this for years, as Leslie Adrian does, it seems. One morning I got a telephone el" and faced the beastly prospect of uninvited 1(1 unwanted guests to luncheon when 1 had some nrk' to finish. What there was to eat would. need 11 08 and 1 said to my cleaner, 'If only I had pme I'd make some mayonnaise and we could add Ole salad to the ham and things.' She looked at in some surprise and said, in dialect (she always
speaks it when moved), 'What do we need time for?'
She took a small plastic mixing bowl and a little old-fashioned egg-whisk, squeezed about a coffeespoonful of made mustard out of the tube and reached into the refrigerator for an egg (I keep them there because there are such cosy little hollows for them in a row). Chucking away the white of the egg—an extravagance I would never commit— she dropped the yolk of the egg on to the mustard and stirred them together. She then took the oil-tin with two' holes in the top and poured in about a tablespoon of oil which had been standing in the cupboard for days (July). Whisk, whisk. Another jolt of oil, whisk. Mayonnaise. More' and more oil until 1 had enough mayonnaise to choke my guests with. All she did after the oil had made enough bulk of the egg was add a little salt and a few drops of lemon. 'Of course, it'll taste of olives,' she said disapprovingly, 'I always use sunflowerseed- oil, myself: Please note the egg was stone cold and the utensils and oil positively warm.
I make the stuff every day now, just to convince myself. What is all this about one drop only? Prob- ably it is anxiety—or should 1 be highbrow and say Angst?—that causes mayonnaise to part.
Vienna
SARAH GAINHAM
PS: Readers of my article from Bonn last week
must have been surprised read that in a recent public-opinion poll 'only 30 per cent.' of those who replied thought Herr Strauss would make the best successor to Dr. Adenauer. Cnly? If Herr Strauss had such support he would be well pleased with himself !
[An intrusive zero crept in: the figure should, of course, have been 3 per cent —Editor, Spectator.]
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