Mayonnaise

I recently read "My Life in France", Julia Childs' autobiography about her discovery of cooking and cookbook writing. Her master recipe for humble mayonnaise (something I myself have not known outside of Hellmans) was an effort of one month and dozens of eggs before she satisfied her curiosity and penned her "no-fail" method. Time consuming, but necessary, especially when you are talking about the fundamentals. And the joy! Julia mayonnaise discovery joy!

Like Julia, I have a deep-seated need to get into things and understand them from the bottom up beyond question. But usually I fear that I am wasting time, digging a hole to nowhere, and so I try not to. But not this week . . . this week my mayonnaise = the dartless blouse with set-in sleeves (or, what you probably would refer to as a "shirt"). A fitted shirt is actually surprisingly easy, you just work with darts all around till you get the shape right and make that nice arm curve with a two piece sleeve. But the dartless blouse, well, that requires both art and science. I've made 5 versions so far and I'm not done. Part of the solution is realizing that without the darts, you just have to live with some drag lines. Or maybe just not design this type of shirt. I've discovered its really a fallacy to think that you can make a dartless shirt, in a woven, fitted, and have it look good. It's like constructing an arch out of only rectangular pieces; the components just don't jive with the desired end product.

But, even without achieving Julia mayonnaise recipe glory yet, I do feel satisfied that I haven't wasted my time, and I am enjoying the process. So, to sum up the point of this post is really to learn from Julia in seeking perfection with reckless abandon. True, it's slow, and you go through a lot of eggs, but anything else is just half-assed, eh?

ps: I made scrambled eggs for breakfast following the "french method" as described in the book. Instead of mixing milk into the beaten eggs, you add the milk at the end (and butter) to stop the cooking. This keeps them from getting rubbery. Also, cook low and slow. You're welcome.