    
© Copyright 2009. All rights reserved and enforced.
Boiled Dressing
Today, we don't think twice about making salad dressings or mayonnaise based on oil. Up until the end of the 1800s, though, if you didn't live in Southern Europe with its ready access to olive oil, you might have been stumped. There were no vegetable oils yet available to you. The plethora of bottled vegetable oils in our kitchens is a very recent phenomenon.
In the 1800s, in both North America and in Britain, salads were becoming more popular. In the absence of oils to dress them, a boiled salad dressing was the answer.
A Boiled Dressing can be thought of as sort of a Hollandaise Sauce for fresh vegetables. It draws on the principle that eggs and vinegar will emulsify in a liquid and form a creamy concoction. The base is usually eggs, vinegar, and a liquid such as cream, milk or water. Some recipes also use a small amount of flour or cornstarch as a thickener. Seasonings such as dry mustard, sugar and salt are added. Later versions would include a tablespoon of olive oil, showing that it was becoming available, but was still a luxury item.
The sauce isn't actually boiled, but rather simmered or made over a double-boiler. It makes a tangy, pourable sauce that can be preserved in jars by canning, which was useful in the days before refrigeration.
Boiled Dressings have faded from fashion now owing to the availability of cheap vegetable oils, not to mention ready-to-use bottled salad dressings. It is still used though for its tang in salads such as coleslaw and potato salad. It is also very good in heartier, bound salads such as bean or chicken. It is still very popular in the UK, in the form of bottled Salad Cream, and in the American South.
A Boiled Dressing can be a good way to use up leftover egg yolks, depending on which recipe you use. If you want to add lemon juice to freshen it up, add after all cooking is complete.
Cooking Tips
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup cold water
1/4 cup vinegar
1 egg or 2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of butter or cream
Whisk all the dry ingredients in the cold water. In the top of a double-boiler, beat the egg with the vinegar, then whisk in the water mixture. Cook until thick and smooth. When done, add the butter, cream or milk, and chill. If you need to thin it, thin it with more cream, milk, buttermilk, sour cream or Greek yoghurt. For added zip, you can add a squeeze of lemon juice, but only at the end after it is cooked.
Store in refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 days.
Substitutes
Mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, Salad Cream
Nutrition
For party or picnic occasions where salads such as potato will be left standing at room temperature, a Boiled Dressing can be a safer choice than mayonnaise, as it has been cooked.
Because it's been cooked, it can also be a safer choice than homemade mayonnaise for those such as pregnant women who need to avoid raw eggs.
Also called:  Cooked Dressing
Other entries for Salad Dressings
Aemono, Boiled Dressing, Green Goddess Dressing, Mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, Salad Cream, Salad Dressings, Thousand Island Dressing, Vinaigrette
Other entries for Sauces
Aillade, Albert Sauce, Allemande Sauce, Amazu Sauce, Awasezu, A.1. Steak Sauce, Banquière Sauce, Barbeque Sauce, Beurre Blanc, Béarnaise Sauce, Black Mint Sauce, Brown Butter, Brown Sauce (English), Butter Sauce, Chile con Queso, Chiri-zu Sauce, Coronation Sauce, Creamed Horseradish, Drawn Butter Sauce, Espagnole Sauce, Finadene Sauce, Fish Sauces, Gravy, Halford Sauce, Harissa, Hoisin Sauce, Hollandaise Sauce, Horseradish Sauce, Ketchup, Ketjap Manis, Marie Rose Sauce, Matelote Sauce, Melted Butter, Meunière Butter, Mint Sauce, Mojo Sauces, Mojo (Cuban), Mole, Murri, Nikiri Sauce, Nitsume Sauce, Noisette Butter, Normande Sauce, Paloise Sauce, Panade à la frangipane, Parisienne Sauce, Pasta Sauce, Pizza Sauce, Poivrade Sauce, Ponzu Sauce, Provençal Sauce, Reform Sauce, Rémoulade Sauce, Rice Wine, Salmuera, Salsas, Sambals, Sambi-Zu Sauce, Sanbai Zu Sauce, Sauce Béarnaise, Sauce Diane, Sauce Maltaise, Soubise Sauce, Soy Sauce, Sriracha, Sushi-zu, Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce, Tabasco, Tamari, Tapenade, Tartar Sauce, Teriyaki Sauce, Tonkatsu Sauce, Vatapá, Velouté Sauce, Walnut Sauce, White Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, XO Sauce, Yakiniku Sauce, Yakitori Sauce
Other entries for Condiments
Liebig's Extract of Meat, Pastes, Relish, Spreads, Tracklements, Vinegar, Wasabi
Top...
|
|
| |
|