Greatest recipes ever: Elizabeth David’s aioli

‘Mrs David was never one for the measuring jug or the food thermometer. Her recipes are written conversationally, lacking any of the step-by-step, garage-manual stuff that causes so much trouble when people try to follow a recipe to the letter. It’s about as far from Heston Blumenthalas anyone can get.

In January 1960, the readership of Vogue was treated to this admirably concise recipe for a sauce to serve with a pot-au-feu, the height of peasant-chic at a time when elegance was all the rage’

Elisabeth Luard

Aioli

Extract from Vogue

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Published in 1960

Most readers will probably already be familiar with the famous garlic mayonnaise of Provence, so just as a reminder you will need, for eight people…

Ingredients

A minimum of 2 large cloves of garlic-but more if you have avid garlic-eaters to entertain
2 egg yolks
At least a half pint of good
olive oil
Salt
Lemon juice

Method

You first pound the garlic to a mash, then stir in the yolks, add a little salt, then the oil, exactly as for a mayonnaise. Lastly, the lemon juice. This beautiful golden ointment-like sauce is really the pivot and raison d’être of the whole affair, so you need plenty of it.’