Thousand Island dressing

Thousand Island dressing

Thousand Island.jpg Thousand Island dressing on a salad
Origin
Place of origin	Canada and the United States
Details
Type	Salad dressing or condiment
Main ingredient(s)	Mayonnaise, olive oil, lemon juice, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, vinegar, eggs, cream, chili sauce, tomato purée or ketchup

Close-up view of Thousand Island dressing on a salad

Thousand Island dressing is a salad dressing and condiment based on mayonnaise and can include olive oil, lemon juice, orange juice, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, vinegar, cream, chili sauce, tomato purée, ketchup, or Tabasco sauce.

It also typically contains finely chopped ingredients, which can include pickles, onions, bell peppers, green olives, hard-boiled egg, parsley, pimento, chives, garlic, or chopped nuts (such as walnuts or chestnuts).

Origins

According to The Oxford Companion to Food and Drink, the dressing's name comes from the Thousand Islands region, located along the upper St. Lawrence River between the United States and Canada. Within that region, one common version of the dressing's origins says that a fishing guide's wife, Sophia LaLonde, made the condiment as part of her husband George's shore dinner. Often in this version, actress May Irwin requested the recipe after enjoying it. Irwin in turn gave it to another Thousand Islands summer resident, George Boldt, who built Boldt Castle between 1900 and 1904. Boldt, as proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, instructed the hotel's maître d'hôtel, Oscar Tschirky, to put the dressing on the menu in 1894. A 1959 National Geographic article states, "Thousand Island Dressing was reportedly developed by Boldt's chef." Despite claims that he was involved in the introduction of the salad dressing at the Waldorf, chef Tschirky did not mention the salad dressing in his famous cookbook that was published during the time period in question.

When University of Wisconsin sociologist Michael Bell and his graduate students tried to untangle the origin story for Thousand Island dressing in 2010, they found that the story differed between the various villages and islands in the Thousand Islands region. They also discovered the existence of a third origin story in which the original recipe was based upon French dressing, which is supported by a recipe published in the 11th edition of the The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (1965). Unfortunately, all of the claims appeared to be based upon oral traditions without a supporting written record.

A few food writers also advance the claim that the dressing was invented by chef Theo Rooms of the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago during the same time period. In any case, the food historians at the Food Timeline point out that the earliest print references to Thousand Island dressing do not appear until 1912 and that recipes for different versions of the dressing begin to show up shortly afterwards throughout the United States.

Uses

File:Thousand-Island-Dressing.jpg

Thousand island dressing used as a dip.

In the 1950s, Thousand Island dressing became a standard condiment, used on sandwiches and salads alike. It is widely used in fast-food restaurants and diners in the United States of America, where it is often referred to as "Special Sauce" or "Secret Sauce". An example of this is In-N-Out Burger's "Spread", served on their burgers and several "Secret Menu" items; despite its name, it is basically a variation of Thousand Island dressing. Thousand Island dressing is also often used as an ingredient in a Reuben sandwich in place of Russian dressing.

See also

• Fry sauce
• Salsa golf

External links

• Thousand Islands: Thousand Islands Dressing early printed citations collected by Barry Popik