Cooked salad dressing

[lmarshal1]

I am looking for a recipe for what used to be called boiled dressing, even though it wasn't actually boiled.  What I'm thinking of contains vinegar and sugar and is thickened with corn starch.  It is especially good on mild white beans and in pasta salads.  It would work on salad greens and shredded cabbage.  Any good recipes that work this way?  Thanks.

[Norm Matthews]

I have that dressing. It was used on potato salad at a Swedish restaurant years and years ago.  Give me a little time to try and find it.

[Norm Matthews]

I haven't found the one I am looking for but here is one from a 1947 cook book.  There is another one that I can type for you if you want it. The only ingredient that is has that this one does not is lemon juice.

Boiled Dressing #1

 2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

2 T.  flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp. dry mustard

1/2 C. cider vinegar

2 Tbsp. butter

1/2 cuo evaporated milk or cream

few grains of pepper

Beat eggs until light in top of double boiler.  Mix dry ingredients together and blend thoroughly with eggs.  Gradually add vinegar and cook over boiling water, stirring constantly until mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and stir in butter, evaporaated milk, and pepper. Cool; store in covered jar in refrigerator.  Makes about1 1/2 cups. Note:  Evaporated milk makes dressing smooth and velvety and less apt to curdle.

[Norm Matthews]

 

I believe this one is from James Beard.  I think mayonnaise replaced these salad dressings when it became commercially available.

 

BOILED SALAD DRESSING

 

2 Tbsp sifted flour

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp. dry

mustard

1 C. white wine

1/3 C. lemon juice or vinegar

2 eggs, separated

1/3 C. olive oil

salt & pepper

1/2 C. sour cream

 

Combine the flour, sugar, mustard, white wine and vinegar or lemon juice together in the top of a double boiler.  Add the egg yolks, oil salt and pepper to taste.  Heat over hot water until the mixture thickens.  Beat the egg whites until stiff.  add the sour cream and the stiffly beaten egg whites to the mixture and beat with a whisk or wooded spoon until the dressing is thoroughly blended.  This can be served hot or cold.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Norm Matthews (log)

[lmarshal1]

Thanks for all your help.  I've been experimenting with a couple other cooked dressings.  I'd love to find a clear, light dressing for a couple of bean salads I make often.  I've been using bottled dressings for this, but I like my experiments better so far.  Still playing with it. Thanks again.  I used to come to eGullet often and got out of the habit.  Nice to be back here.  Always helpful comments.  Thanks again.

[AAQuesada]

boiled dressing is a whole category! fun to explore. Miracle Whip was considered a boiled dressing IIRC & in culinary school we did a 'Tropical Fruit dressing' which was really good and not much more than different fruit juices mixed together and thickened as you said! Let me look around and maybe i'll find something  

[Norm Matthews]

This is a boiled fruit dressing I use with a fruit salad that always gets good reviews.  

2/3 cup fresh orange juice  

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup packed brown sugar 

1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest 

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

 

 

Directions

Bring orange juice, lemon juice, brown sugar, orange zest, and lemon zest to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla extract. Set aside to cool.

[lmarshal1]

Your cooked dressing for fruit salad sounds delicious.  Will try!

[lmarshal1]

I often make a bean salad with canallini beans, sliced celery, and green onions.  I use a dressing recipe written originally for a pasta salad:  sugar, dry mustard, cornstarch, and rice vinegar and a little water, cooked till thickened a bit.  I have family members who are pre-diabetic, so I tried this dressing with a little artificial sweetener instead of sugar, and it turned out pretty well, but still not quite what I had in mind.  Ideas/additions to make this more tasty?

[Norm Matthews]

Maybe adding salt, pepper and garlic, perhaps some herbs like basil and oregano might perk it up.

 

[MokaPot]

5 hours ago, lmarshal1 said:

I often make a bean salad with canallini beans, sliced celery, and green onions.  I use a dressing recipe written originally for a pasta salad:  sugar, dry mustard, cornstarch, and rice vinegar and a little water, cooked till thickened a bit.  I have family members who are pre-diabetic, so I tried this dressing with a little artificial sweetener instead of sugar, and it turned out pretty well, but still not quite what I had in mind.  Ideas/additions to make this more tasty?

 

I like rice vinegar, but it can be too mild, IME. Maybe use just the plain white vinegar & don't add water?

 

[AAQuesada]

8 hours ago, lmarshal1 said:

I use a dressing recipe written originally for a pasta salad:  sugar, dry mustard, cornstarch, and rice vinegar and a little water, cooked till thickened a bit.

I don't have anything written down but i used to do one that was like a basic vinaigrette but instead of the oil I would use a thickened veg stock -you could use from a box but I like to make a simple one with just whole garlic heads, leek & thyme. Which gives a light but distinctive flavor. if you want to be all fancy instead of cornstarch you can thicken with Xanthan gum. You could even mix in a some of a Good Seasons dressing packet I think would go nicely with beans / grain salads

[Norm Matthews]

I just found the original cooked salad dressing that I was looking for three months ago. It is in my hand written cookbook that I started back in the 1970's to organize and save recipes before there were home computers.  Notice the copper reinforced holes in archival paper.

[heidih]

@Norm Matthewsthat came to mind in the potato salad topic as a dressing Thanks! Oh and the binder hike reinforcers- never had copper ones- cool.

[Norm Matthews]

@heidih I was looking for the recipe in a Swedish restaurant cookbook in Lindsborg Kansas but it has been lost.  I had forgotten that it is in my cookbook too.  Lindsborg at that same time had a machine shop that made my potters wheel. He called himself a blacksmith.  Lindsborg is where the first heritage turkey farm is located. The king of Sweden visited there  in 1976.  That binder has steel hinges as well as copper around the paper holes.  I guess I wanted to have something that I wouldn't worry about wearing out. It must be closing in on being 50 years old by now.  

[heidih]

38 minutes ago, Norm Matthews said:

@heidih I was looking for the recipe in a Swedish restaurant cookbook in Lindsborg Kansas but it has been lost.  I had forgotten that it is in my cookbook too.  Lindsborg at that same time had a machine shop that made my potters wheel. He called himself a blacksmith.  Lindsborg is where the first heritage turkey farm is located. The king of Sweden visited there  in 1976.  That binder has steel hinges as well as copper around the paper holes.  I guess I wanted to have something that I wouldn't worry about wearing out. It must be closing in on being 50 years old by now.  

Utility and durability aside - it is quite handsome

[MokaPot]

@Norm Matthews, that is a cool binder and cool reinforced pages inside. I guess you'd have to use a flatbed scanner rather than an a drop-feed scanner.

[lmarshal1]

Thanks, Norm, for the recipe.  I will try that.  Last week I made some of the dressing I mentioned earlier, but I left out the mustard, used apple-cider vinegar instead of rice vinegar, and added chopped chives, a bit of celery seed, and some pepper.  Not bad at all.  I do want to try yours.  I like the addition of the dry milk and the eggs.  And the potato salad sounds very good too.  Thanks again.

[lmarshal1]

On 4/29/2021 at 8:35 PM, AAQuesada said:

I don't have anything written down but i used to do one that was like a basic vinaigrette but instead of the oil I would use a thickened veg stock -you could use from a box but I like to make a simple one with just whole garlic heads, leek & thyme. Which gives a light but distinctive flavor. if you want to be all fancy instead of cornstarch you can thicken with Xanthan gum. You could even mix in a some of a Good Seasons dressing packet I think would go nicely with beans / grain salads

I like the idea of the thickened vegetable stock.  I want to try Norm's recipe too.  A nice bean or grain salad sounds very tasty.  Makes me think of a rice salad recipe I used to make and had forgotten.  A barley salad might be good  as well.  Thanks for ideas.

[Tropicalsenior]

Seems I'm a little late to this party but I wanted to contribute a cooked fruit salad dressing that I have used for years.

Cooked Fruit Salad Dressing

 Serves 6

 

1/2 cup pineapple juice 

2 tablespoons lemon juice 

1/2 cup orange juice 

2 tablespoons honey 

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup sour cream 

 

Stir everything, except the cornstarch and sour cream, together in a 2 quart microwavable bowl and reserve 1/4 cup of the mixture in a small bowl.  Microwave the larger mixture for 2 minutes on high.  Meanwhile add the cornstarch to the reserved juice and stir well.   Stir the cornstarch slurry into the hot juice and microwave for 1 minute more stirring well after 30 seconds.  If the mixture has not thickened microwave it until it does, stirring every 30 seconds.   Let the dressing cool and add the sour cream.  Refrigerate it until you are ready to use it.  Add to 4 cups of any diced fresh or canned fruit.  This is better if it is made a few hours before it is served so that the flavors can blend.