History of Russian dressing

Russian dressing is not Russian and it is not for salads, but more of a sandwich spread – usually a Reuben. Russian dressing is a creamy, slightly spicy, salmon-hued spread made from mayonnaise, ketchup, sour cream, prepared horseradish, and dill relish.

The mayo and ketchup concoction was created in Nashua, New Hampshire. The earliest reference to Russian dressing, is from a 1911 menu for the Gridiron Club. Salads with Russian dressing were fashionable before World War I.

It was grocer James E. Colburn who invented the spread. Colburn had been selling "Colburn's Mayonnaise salad dressing" at his store since at least 1910. While running that business he hit upon the idea of a Russian salad dressing. By 1914, Colburn's company was manufacturing it, and distributing it to retailers and hotels.

The Washington Post cites the 1927 text, which says Colburn sold the condiment to “retailers and hotels across the country, earning ‘wealth on which he was enabled to retire.’”

Contrary to its name, it did not originate in Russia but rather was supposedly created in New Hampshire and called “Russian dressing” because it originally contained caviar, a staple of Russian cuisine. Some say Colburn liked to mix in caviar, or perhaps because it sometimes was added to the Russian-inspired Salad Olivier.
History of Russian dressing

History of Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice.

Historically, mayonnaise was based on aioli, a Catalan and Privencal sauce that combined olive oil, eggs and garlic.

Pliny the Elder (AD23-79) who was a Roman procurator in Tarragona on the Cataklan coats, seems to refer to aioli when he writes in his Natural History that when garlic ‘is beaten up in oil and vinegar it swells up in foam to as a surprising size’.

In the late eighteenth century, the French whipped the egg and slowly added oil.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the sauce got its present name of mayonnaise purely by accident through a printing error in an early 1841 cookbook.

Mayonnaise was mentioned in cookbooks published in the United States by 1829, but did not become an important condiment until the end of the nineteenth century. Many Germans dishes use mayonnaise or other sauces with mayonnaise as a base.

Recipes for making mayonnaise and for using it as an ingredient in other dishes began to appear regularly in American cookbooks by 1880, and in cookery magazines shortly thereafter.

The first known attempt to manufacturer commercial mayonnaise occurred in 1907, when a delicatessen owner in Philadelphia marketed it as Mrs. Schlorer’s Mayonnaise.

He mixed up a batch of his wife’s mayonnaise in the back of his store and added preservatives.

In 1912, Manhattan delicatessen owner Richard Hellman began marketing a shelf-stabilized mayonnaise packed in jars. He soon released that the secret to his success was based on his wife, Nina recipe of mayonnaise she put on the sandwiches and salads.

The rest is mayonnaise history with Hellman’s Mayonnaise becoming one of the best selling spreads of all time. It was trademarked as Blue Ribbon label in 1926.
History of Mayonnaise