Do you remember the flavour of English salad cream? When I was a kid growing up in Merrie England there were only two types of salad dressing: mayonnaise and salad cream.I never got to try mayonnaise until adulthood but I had a lot of salad cream as a child. I loved the stuff.
I can have it anytime now because it's a standard item on the shelves of Blighty's Tuck Store. But then I came across a recipe for salad cream in my grandmother's recipe book and decided to give it a try. And does it taste just like the Heinz Salad Cream I grew up with? No, not at all actually, but I was quite pleased with the result anyway.
If you go to the Heinz Salad Cream website you can read all about what goes into their salad cream. I compared the Heinz ingredients with my grandmother's recipe book. Bingo, exact match. My salad cream should have tasted just like Heinz's, but it didn't so you can be sure that there are undisclosed secret ingredients in the commercial product.
If you would like to help improve the recipe, buy a bottle of Heinz Salad Cream and see if you can duplicate the flavour. Send me a comment (see link at bottom of this post) with your recipe improvements.
Ingredients
- Yolks of 4 hard-boiled eggs
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons cream
- Colman's Prepared Mustard, garlic powder, salt & pepper
Preparation
- Put the eggs yolks into a bowl and stir in the oil until you have a smooth paste.
- Season with garlic powder, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of Colman's Prepared English mustard
- Stir in the vinegar, ensuring the paste remains smooth
- Stir in the cream, adding a little at a time to prevent curdling
In the picture you can see my homemade salad cream adorning a simple avocado salad - and very nice it was too.
Remember, you can subscribe to Blighty's British Recipes Newsletter. You will receive approximately one email per week with a new traditional British recipe that you can try in your kitchen. Alternatively, you can subscribe to this blog where you will also find occasional blather from me about traditional British food.
Also, keep in mind that you can buy some of the ingredients for these recipes at Blighty's Tuck Store. If you do, you will keep me out of the poor-house and encourage me to keep bringing these recipes to you. Enjoy.
A quick tip for anybody trying this recipe. I used coffee cream which is somewhat thin and made the resulting salad cream a little runnier than commercial salad cream. Try using a thick cream instead for a better texture.
ReplyDeletehi you forgot the sugar I remember reading sugar was the missing ingredient from mayo sugar and mustard I miss salad cream as I spend a lot of time abroad and was looking for a quick way to make it using the basic mayo
ReplyDelete. I will try your recipe though as it sounds good
Not the same but quick nevertheless. take some mayo, add some sugar (coffee spoon) stir well to disolve the sugar and thin slightly with white wine vinegar. Taste and adjust to your liking.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the informative and well-written article. Alternatively: "Cheat's salad cream": I just tried this and I think it tastes great! Mayonnaise+ little bit sugar+ little bit vinegar+ little bit dijon mustard. Mix it up and let the sugar dissolve for 10minutes. Taste and adjust with more sugar if too sour, more vinegar if too sweet. I used red wine vinegar which has a strong flavour, so I only used a little bit; barely 10ml with 75ml mayo. I think it has the sharpness, sweetness and tang of heinz but with a slightly more sophisticated taste due to the dijon and red wine vinegar. Yummy with jacket spud, cold meats and salad
ReplyDelete