Spicy Dressing

[mme_hardy]

 From  Woman's World, August, 1937.

4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tablespoons glycerine
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of cayenne
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard 
1/2 cup vinegar.

Combine butter and flour in double boiler, add milk gradually and cook, stirring constantly, as for white sauce.  Beat egg yolks and glycerine slightly, then add remaining ingredients, stir into first mixture, and continue cooking until thick and smooth.   Remove from fire and pour slowly over stiffly beaten egg whites, beating while pouring.  When cold cover and keep in refrigerator.

This is for making a mixed vegetable salad, or for "moistening" chopped raw vegetables for use as a sandwich spread.  It probably wasn't as dreadful as I think it sounds, but, Lord, it doesn't sound good.

e:  Five or six pages later:  "Surprise the family with delicious Grape-Nuts mousse".  I'll say.  It's an Italian meringue with cream, grape nuts, and vanilla beaten in, then frozen.

Comments

[sovay]

It's an Italian meringue with cream, grape nuts, and vanilla beaten in, then frozen.

I would be not just surprised by that but actively confused.

[loligo]

If forced to choose, I'd pick the Grape-Nuts mousse over the dressing… Cold, sour, fluffy white sauce? Why??

[movingfinger]

Because raw-egg mayo spoils on the picnic table in hot weather.

[mme_hardy]

Judging by my cookbooks, mayo wasn't fashionable -- for the middle classes, anyway -- under any circumstances; it was all about the boiled dressings.

[movingfinger]

I'm thinking that mayo is usually made with olive or grapeseed oils, right? I don't think those were widely distributed in the US/Canada and possibly in England/British Isles until very recently. (My mom still considers olive oil an exotic food and is convinced it will disagree with her digestion!) Access to fresh-tasting oils is crucial for mayonnaise. So there's likely a foodway thing there also. I'm not sure how far back boiled dressing goes, but it could be 18c or 17c.

[mme_hardy]

MFK Fisher mentions that the only time she ever had decent salad dressing growing up was when her grandmother was away and her father would use the baby's "sweet oil", which was olive oil used for medical purposes, to make dressing.

[sollers]

Cooking oils weren't generally available in the UK till the mid 1960S or later; lard was as important in British cooking vas bacon fat is in France.

Fresh mayonnaise would not have been an option for a whole generation anyway, as food rationing didn't finally end till 1953, and nobody would have wasted their precious egg on salad dressing.

Salads were sad affairs anyway, consisting of three or four of the following laid out on each person's plate:

A leaf or two of lettuce
A radish
Two or three slices of tomato
One or two spring onions
Three or four slices of cucumber, peeled (they were very bitter in those days, and the slices were often soaked in vinegar beforehand)
Two or three slices of pickled beetroot

Served with a couple of slices of cold meat and tinned potato salad. The only available dressing was Heinz salad cream.

[loligo]

Ah, I've heard of boiled dressing, but it is not part of the foodways of my people. When my grandparents were growing up on farms in the days before refrigeration, sour cream was the salad moistener of choice.

[movingfinger]

This is a variant on "boiled dressing," a classic which I suspect is absolutely no longer made anywhere because it's a faff.

On the grape-nut thing: No. And I LIKE grape-nut ice cream.

[executrix]

I adore Grape-Nuts so I'd give the mousse the benefit of the doubt. However, I actually own a bottle of glycerine (it was falsely represented to me that you can use it to turn castile soap into something that will acceptably wash dishes) and ewww, I wouldn't EAT it. BTW in the US "Miracle Whip," a cheaper substitute for mayonnaise, is essentially boiled dressing. But it doesn't have glycerine in it.

[movingfinger]

Glycerine is a sugar alcohol and is commonly used in candymaking and some patisserie elements; it keeps sugars from solidifying. It is edible; if you read labels, you'll find it in a lot of foods! And if you read labels, you will find it in many skincare products as well.

In this recipe, it is probably acting to stabilize the dressing and help smooth the texture, just guessing (gelatin is used for similar reasons to stabilize mousses and whipped cream).

[vom_marlowe]

I've seen glycerine in the ingredients list of foods, always was curious what it was doing there. I keep it in my cupboard for making a couple holiday gentle-skin products, but I've never cooked with it. Interesting!

[mme_hardy]

Have you ever had boiled dressing? I haven't.

Grape-nut pudding was a thing in New England, but IIRC I never dared try it.

[movingfinger]

They get soggy, if it's done correctly. Grape-nut pudding is not supposed to be crunchy. It's custard with toasted crumbs in it. Before grape-nuts, the same thing was made with brown bread, meaning, molasses flavor and perhaps cornmeal flavors would be in there. Well over on the hearty branch of the dessert family tree.

[rydra_wong]

Brown bread icecream is wonderful (IMHO), though.

[vom_marlowe]

I had a college roommate who made this sort of dressing once. I recall it as being on some cold vegetable salad, and it was not good. It was not as vile as it looks on paper, mind you, but.... not good.

[movingfinger]

sorry to spam your comments---the grape-nuts recipe rang a bell too; a little digging shows it is a variant of queen's pudding, which uses cake crumbs or fine bread crumbs! So these are---what's the opposite of new wine in old bottles? That. With a side of Modern Convenience Cookery, I'd guess, the grape-nuts and glycerine perhaps being provided by a sponsor?

[mme_hardy]

It's always a pleasure talking to you about food; it isn't spam at all.

[movingfinger]

I cannot remember the last time I ate grape-nuts, but my mouth remembers the gritty, gravel-grinding experience perfectly.

[mme_hardy]

I actually have them for breakfast most mornings.

[movingfinger]

...so you could try the recipe....?

[mme_hardy]

Honestly, it sounds nasty. Peaches have started here, so it's time for fresh peach ice cream, mmmm.

[moetushie]

Hmm, this is kind of a savory version of boiled milk frosting, right? (I only encountered boiled frosting this year, and it was a chocolate version and it knocked my socks off. I mean, it was good. Ahem.)

While I get glycerine is edible, it just doesn't seem right to eat it. Ha.

... Grape-Nuts Mousse doesn't sound too good either, but my favorite cereal recipe are Special K bars, which probably would sound weird across a big gulf of time too.

[caulkhead]

SALAD DRESSING (from a Masschussets community cookbook, 1977)
1 can Campbell's tomato soup
3/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup Crisco oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp onion powder

Place in blender and mix well or put into bowl and mix well

This seems like an *awful lot* of 'salad dressing'.

[sollers]

Substitute tomato ketchup for the soup and it's very like a recipe I once found for sweet and sour sauce.

I'd use that on meat (particularly burgers or sausages) but not salads.

[caulkhead]

It seemed like a lot of sugar, but if it's aiming for sweet and sour, that makes more sense.

[vom_marlowe]

We'd call that a 'Russian' dressing around here. Tooth-achingly sweet, tomato elements, some powdered savory oniony bits, plenty of oil. I don't think anyone from Russian has, y'know, actually been involved in the making of such dressings, but it's what we always called them. Served on iceberg lettuce with tomato slices, or layered cold salads for potlucks.

[sabotabby]

OMG. I suppose the family would be surprised, but not in a good way.

[sollers]

I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one who thinks it sounds awful - mostly because of the sugar (though I gather this is very much a Brit thing: fruit in the salad, nowadays, yes, though as a child I was revolted by the idea; sugar in the dressing, no). The glycerine bothered me because my only association with it is as an ingredient of medicines for coughs and sore throats.

What are grape nuts?

[mme_hardy]

Flavor-wise, they're a lot like Weetabix in the shape and softness of gravel. Little balls about 1/8 inch in diameter? They soften in milk.

[sollers]

If I found myself with a recipe that called for them, I'd probably substitute crushed digestive biscuits.

[mme_hardy]

Digestives are much softer, but that should work.

[caulkhead]

To this day, there is a small bottle of glycerin in my mother's larder; I'm not quite sure what it's for (sugar paste icing?) but it gets replaced every now and then.

[mme_hardy]

IIRC it's good for keeping jam for foaming; you pour a little on the top. I've always used butter.

[malkingrey]

"Surprise the family with delicious Grape-Nuts mousse". I'll say. It's an Italian meringue with cream, grape nuts, and vanilla beaten in, then frozen.

Sounds like an upscale (or at least would-be upscale) version of grape-nut custard, which is still very much a New England thing.

New England foodways can get weird sometimes, says this expat southerner. Our small local area is a mixture of old-line Yankee "black pepper is an exotic spice" people, and Francophones who are firm believers in good cheese and good wine and well-seasoned meat. The IGA, fortunately, caters to both, and the owner will give almost anything a try, and if it sells, keep on stocking it.

(The current experiment appears to be kimchee. We're doing our best to encourage him to keep it.)

[garpu]

Oh god. My mom made that Grape Nuts mousse. It was...hideous.