Which came first, mayo or salad dressing?

unbelievable1

Salad Dressing came first. Salad dressings and sauces have a long and colorful history, dating back to ancient times. The Chinese have been using soy sauce for 5,000 years; the Babylonians used oil and vinegar for dressing greens nearly 2,000 years ago; and the ever-popular Worcestershire was derived from a sauce used since the days of the Caesar. Indeed, early Romans preferred their grass and herb salads dressed with salt. Egyptians favored a salad dressed with oil, vinegar and Oriental spices. Mayonnaise is said to have made its debut at a French Nobleman’s table over 200 years ago. Salads were favorites in the great courts of European Monarchs - Royal salad chefs often combined as many as 35 ingredients in one enormous salad bowl, including such exotic "greens" as rose petals, marigolds, nasturtiums, and violets. England’s King Henry IV's favorite salad was a tossed mixture of new potatoes (boiled and diced), sardines and herb dressing. Mary, Queen of Scots, preferred boiled celery root diced and tossed with lettuce, creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil and hard-cooked egg slices. Recap: Salad dressing has been around for thousands of years, mayo has been around for only 200. Source: http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/SaladHistory.htm Sep 03 07, 5:39 PM

lanfranco

I sort of suspect that the cooks of antiquity, and particularly the Greeks and the Romans, were probably creating emulsions with eggs, oil, salt, vinegar, and herbs many, many centuries before the French claimed the invention of "mayonnaise". Sep 03 07, 6:10 PM

zbeckabee

If you're talking about the salad dressing spread known as Miracle Whip, then Mayo came first. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Whip#Competition_with_mayonnaise Sep 03 07, 7:22 PM

Baloo55th

Distinction should be made between salad dressing and salad cream. Salad cream (in the UK) and Miracle Whip (USA) are salad dressings but salad dressings can be totally different stuff. I use salad cream as a dip for chips (UK chips), but I make my own salad dressings. Salad dressing predates mayo as already pointed out. Way back to when someone first dripped some oily stuff with bits of leaves in it onto the boring leaves he/she was planning to eat - and found that it actually made lettuce edible! Sep 04 07, 10:31 AM

AndyStafford

"England’s King Henry IV's favorite salad was a tossed mixture of new potatoes (boiled and diced)" unfortunately he had been dead a while before he could enjoy the potato. Potato was introduced to England by Francis Drake in 1580. Henri IV died in March 1413. Mar 07 10, 11:31 AM

Baloo55th

Well spotted - I missed that one! I couldn't really see him having sardines, either. In those days, it was the meat that counted - for the rich and well-off. Potatoes didn't enter upper level diets until a good 200 years after their introduction to Europe. Only in Ireland did they become part of the poor's diet on a regular basis, until Parmentier got to work. Mar 07 10, 2:24 PM

queproblema

Likely the mistake came from compounding a hodge-podge of errors: the original fact probably referred to Henri IV of France, not Henry IV of England, and is about Bearnaise sauce, not mayonnaise. Potatoes? Well, the chef also worked with potato recipes. Or maybe this was a sauce over beef that had a potato side. http://www.cookthink.com/reference/2617/What_is_Bearnaise_sauce http://www.abingdonmanor.com/db/recipes-detail.cfm?wantid=146 And here I thought sorting out ancient manuscripts of sacred or philosophical texts was complicated! :D Mar 07 10, 7:00 PM