Salad cream is solidly British, but the art of making it from scratch has been all but lost. When I was a child, salad cream was in a bottle and it was made by Heinz. The Heinz stuff is a vinegary concoction made with cornflour, pasteurised egg and mustard powder. It was invented in the UK in 1914 right before WW1. Later, when rationing was in force during the Second World War, salad cream became the British staple substitute for mayonnaise, and the stuff could be found on every summer lunch table up and down the land all through the 1970s and 80s.
British creamy salad dressings pre-date the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Heinz simply took the idea and mechanised it; however many 19th Century cooks had recipes for salad cream. William Kitchiner recorded it in The Cook’s Oracle in 1830. Eliza Acton wrote one down in 1845, and Mrs Isabella Beeton provided another in 1861.
The recipe provided here is by Simon Hopkinson and appears in The Prawn Cocktail Years. The Hopkinson recipe follows the historical examples by blending cooked egg yolks with cream and vinegar. Mustard is a must. Cayenne provides a little kick to liven up the cream.
Salad cream
(43 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- 6 eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
- 2 tsp sugar
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1.5 tbsp white wine vinegar (see notes)
- 2 tsp English mustard powder
- 1 tbsp tarragon, chopped
- 275ml double cream
Instructions
Separate the egg yolks from the whites and grate them through a sieve. Set the whites aside for another purpose (e.g. as a salad ingredient) and combine the yolks with all the other ingredients and whisk smooth. A stick blender can help achieve a smooth finish.
Notes
Original calls for tarragon vinegar, but fuck that shit – it takes 2 weeks to make it. If you have to, then put 1 USA cup of chopped tarragon in 2 USA cups fo vinegar and steep for a fortnight. Strain and store.
10 Comments
John
08/08/2020 at 6:32 pmWhat do you know about the famous London chop houses from about 200 year ago?
Nigel Eastmond
28/08/2020 at 9:03 amHi John. I think they were simply small restaurant/pubs that served grilled meat as a snack or meal. They will have been the preserve of middle-class men at the time.
Patrick Bass
02/08/2021 at 7:37 amHi
How long do you think this will last out of the fridge, the Heinz version will last for weeks or months, and have you any good ideas for a long life recipe?
I have the recipe for Heinz Baked Beans, do you know how to do that?
Thanks!
Nigel Eastmond
03/08/2021 at 8:44 pmThis is a tough one. Heinz is basically a mayonnaise made with wartime ingredients, and it has no preservatives in it at all. Heinz suggests fridge for 6 weeks after opening. The salad cream we describe actually uses cream, so you need to think of it like that – it is fridge for a week max. In terms of stabilising it, more vinegar would kill most things that might try to grow in it.
Martin Voice
09/01/2022 at 3:34 pmHi Nigel
Thank you for shearing this and I hate to split hairs but you might have your world wars mixed up. Apart from that great stuff
Nigel Eastmond
09/01/2022 at 4:01 pmHi Martin. Thanks for the comment. No, it have this right. It was invented right before WW1 after and 8-year odyssey to get the recipe right, but came into its own in WW2 when rationing was in force.
Maggie Percy
19/05/2023 at 3:20 pmMy husband is from the UK. We live in the US. Until recently, we could buy his favorite British condiments either locally or online for a decent price, but now Salad Cream, a favorite of his, is costing nearly $20 per bottle. So I found your recipe and it looks good, but double cream is different from whipping cream, which is all I can get locally. Can I substitute whipping cream, which has a lower fat content, for the double cream? Is there any alteration to the recipe if I do that? Thanks.
Nigel Eastmond
19/05/2023 at 3:58 pmHi Maggie. Thanks for your comments. First of all, this comes out different to Heinz Salad Cream, but is a similar idea. It is looser, for sure and maybe less vinegary. As I understand US heavy cream is UK double cream. Whipping cream will do, but it is thinner than double. Hope that helps.
Maggie Percy
29/06/2023 at 2:14 pmThanks for the reply, Nigel. I’m going to give the recipe a try! So glad to have found it, because I just used up the last of the store-bought salad cream, and my husband (also named Nigel) loves it. I’m sure this will work great.
Nigel Eastmond
29/06/2023 at 9:25 pmHi Maggie, this differs from Heinz, but is the same idea. If you want to adjust it ‘Heinz-wards,’ I would say a tad more vinegar would not go amiss.