Greatest recipes ever: Elizabeth David’s aioli

Elisabeth Luard chooses Elizabeth David’s aioli as one of her greatest recipes ever

wFDFNBHkbsXsqZLGaAnTUa.jpg
Garlic dip

‘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

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.'

Country Life

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.