Old fashioned salad dressing recipe

Who doesn’t love a good salad? With this recipe in mind, I went to a farmer’s market and got some great produce. This is an old fashioned salad dressing recipe that brought a ton of flavor to some really great veggies.

What I Loved

I say this a lot, but I loved the simplicity of this recipe. This old fashioned salad dressing recipe used ingredients that I had around the house. I went to the farmer’s market for veggies, but I didn’t need to buy anything for the actual salad dressing. There is also a lot of room for customization. You can dramatically change the flavor of this dressing by adding different vinegars and herbs. Whatever customizations you make, you are going to love this simple and easy recipe. Enjoy!

Original Old Fashioned Salad Dressing Recipe

Take the yolks of four eggs boiled hard, put them into the mortar, with a spoonful of mustard; pound this very fine, add to it salt and pepper, two spoonful of vinegar, and three of sweet oil: you may put also a spoonful of tarragon, or elder vinegar. If you have in your larder a good meat jelly, you may occasionally put some to it, but do not put any cream, for it is very unwholesome: you may put some chopped herbs, as chervil, tarragon, burnet, &c. into this sauce.

Updated Method

  • 4 hard boiled egg yolks
  • 1 tbsp. mustard
  • 2 tbsp. vinegar
  • 3 tbsp. of olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • herbs of choice

Mix the yolks and mustard together until well mixed. Add the vinegar, olive oil, and any herbs and mix thoroughly. Salt and pepper to taste.

Salad Sauce

What I Learned

The original title for this recipe in 1836 was, “Salad Sauce”. However, today we would call it a salad dressing. It was really interesting to me. I have made salad dressing before, but I still learned a lot from this recipe. The yolks made a creamy and complex dressing without having to add any dairy. In fact, the recipe explicitly tells you not to add cream. I loved that.

I added apple cider vinegar and it was a little intense for me. The vinegar you choose will largely be the flavor of this dressing. So it is important to pick flavors you love.

When I first mixed this together, it was a little bland. That surprised me. I thought for sure that with the vinegar in this old fashioned salad dressing recipe, it would pack a flavorful punch. The salt was critical to solving this problem. A little salt really added punch to the vinegar. If you make it too intense, add some fresh herbs to dampen it a touch.

Original Recipe Reference

The Young Cook’s Guide; With Practical Observations. I. Roberts, 1836

Old Fashioned Salad Dressing Recipe From 1836
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