Perusing the menu at the Rieger Hotel and Grill in Kansas City, Missouri, last week, one of the salads was described as having a "Dorothy Lynch style" dressing. Having never heard the term we asked the server what that was, and when she described the ingredients Bob and I both exclaimed "Aunt Thelma's!"
Aunt Thelma's dressing is a dressing that was a standard in our household when I was a child. I don't know who Aunt Thelma was or if she was even related to us, but my grandmother's hand-written recipe used oil, baseball mustard, cider vinegar, salt, light brown sugar, canned tomato soup and fresh garlic. To this day I love it, though I've refined it from Aunt Thelma's ballsier version. I cut the fat by replacing some of the oil with water, I reduced the sugar and toned down the color by using an organic white sugar, and I use dry mustard and add ginger for more complex sharpness. I pour it over lettuce wedges to serve as a first course in comfort food meals, and often thin a bit of it with more oil and vinegar plus a fresh chopped red chile to make a spicy dressing for arugula and other strong greens--it's a wonderful lunch pairing with cold smoked salmon. Also, when possible I start with fresh cooked/strained tomato sauce, but I have to be honest that I'm not above using tomato soup when the jones strikes in the dead of winter.
Anyway, it was a revelation to realize that this dressing by another name was a Midwest institution. Bottled "French" dressing that is nothing French at all bears some resemblance, but as a kid I loved the home-made and hated the bottled stuff which was too sweet and bland by comparison. That you can buy Dorothy Lynch brand salad dressing in stores in the Midwest, and that it was in fact invented by one Dorothy Lynch who, with her husband Paul, owned a popular restaurant at a St. Paul, Nebraska, Legion Hall, was something I only learned just now when goggling for more information.
On the internet, recipes for this dressing abound. This one I found on the Food Network site seems the most representative:
1 cup salad oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can tomato soup
1/2 cup vinegar
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns (ground with grinder)
Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a blender until creamy. Pour into canning jar or container and refrigerate overnight.
The celery seed is an interesting addition unfamiliar to me, but it sounds nice.
Anyone else a fan?
that they sell real Dorothy Lynch Dressing at Wal-Marts in New Jersey, and presumably around the planet!