Salad dressing has been around since the first Chinese people used soy sauce on their vegetables 5000 years ago. The Babylonians came up with an oil and vinegar version 2000 years ago. The Romans added salt to the recipe and Egyptians added spices from the Orient. Mayonnaise first hit the table more than 200 years ago in France.* Salad was probably one of the most common local foods until our food supply became more centralized.

Image Courtesy of JB’s Warehouse and Curio Emporium

Salad dressing was a homemade condiment until Kraft entered the salad dressing game in 1925 with bottled French Dressing.  In the 1950s and 60s, Ranch dressing was the most popular and Hidden Valley Ranch dressing was invented at a dude ranch in California.  Most people can identify the taste of the Hidden Valley Ranch brand even today.

Though we are becoming less enamored of the convenience of prepared and processed foods, the influence of the 50s and 60s has lasted well into this new millennium.  There are people who are fairly health conscious, decent cooks that use bottled salad dressing.  It just doesn’t occur to them to make it, they think it will take too much time and effort, or they don’t trust themselves to create a dressing that they want to eat on their salad.  If this is you, read on and be brave.  Oh and make sure you get your hands on some really fresh greens.

Other than fish, greens are probably the most sensitive fresh food.  It’s not that you can’t make them last in the refrigerator, it’s that they quickly lose their flavor, crispness and texture.  If you shop for lettuce and greens at your local grocery store, you are probably buying a product that has been shipped from California.  At best, it was harvested days ago.  This is the lettuce we are all used to, so we don’t worry about the freshness unless the greens are actually discolored or limp.  We don’t know how great salad tastes until we’ve had it with the freshest greens, so many people do not enjoy salad.  The dressing is needed to cover the flavor and tempt them into eating something that is “good” for them.

The too-strong flavors of commercial salad dressings were formulated to cover up the blandness of iceberg lettuce, to cover the bitter, wilted flavor of greens that are well-past their prime, or to convince people to eat “healthier”.  In many bottled dressings you can expect a high sodium content and plenty of preservatives.  There is also a chemical, plastic flavor and a strangely shiny thick consistency to bottled dressings.  For some reason I am tempted from time to time to purchase that creamy blue cheese dressing in the produce section of the grocery store.  It’s refrigerated and just seems like it would be fresh since it’s in the produce section.  I am always disappointed by the salty, bitter, oddly sweet “flavor” that is common to all store-bought dressings.  Must be the xanthan gum.

Another reason people think they don’t like salad is that they tend to use too much dressing on the salad because they have washed the greens, the greens are wet, and the salad dressing doesn’t coat the greens the way they want it to unless it is over-dressed.  And the dressing just doesn’t taste that great.  Using a salad-spinner is necessary to make a really delicious salad.  By drying out the leaves you can use less dressing and taste the greens as well as the dressing.  Not only does fresh local lettuce taste great, but you can make a really simple dressing at home and it will be the best salad you ever had.  It’s really worth a trip to the Farmer’s Market.  Or, if you are at all inclined to garden, salad greens are also quite easy to grow – what could be fresher than the greens you picked in your own back yard today?

It’s easy to grow your own lettuce

Rules of a Great Salad

1. Start with greens from the Farmer’s Market or grow them yourself.   At your local co-op they can tell you where the greens came from and you can decide whether or not that is fresh enough for you.
2. A mixture of greens, rather than a single type, will make your salad even more interesting and tasty.  Don’t be afraid to be creative and add other seasonal vegetables, fruits, nuts or even leftovers such as beans or rice.
3. Wash, wash, wash your greens.  Then spin them in the salad spinner.
4. Salad should always be broken into bite size pieces.
5. Make your own dressing.  If you have eggs, a lemon or balsamic or red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper it’s easy to make a homemade vinaigrette or even your own mayonnaise. Keep the flavors simple.  If you are not a flavor wizard like Heidi and you’re using more than 5 ingredients this is probably a sign that you are about to overwhelm the greens with the dressing.

*I’ll have what they’re having : Legendary Local Cuisine (2002) by Linda Stradley