Summer Salads

I love summer salads with a creamy dressing—some combination, usually, of mayonnaise or “salad dressing” in a jar and maybe some buttermilk or sour cream. They are delicious on everything from staples such as potato salad, chicken salad, pasta salads (especially with seafood) and even green or fruit salads. Changing the spices a little changes the dressing.

But I had a potato salad at a friend’s house that was out of this world and I just couldn’t figure out what made it so delicious. The potatoes being cooked just right—not too hard and not too mushy was a good start, of course. And, too, the proper balance of crunch, tang and mellow goodness is a factor. But I make a pretty mean potato salad that couldn’t compare to the one I was eating and I had to know why.

It turns out that the creamy salad dressing was a combination of homemade “boiled dressing” and homemade mayonnaise. I definitely knew that my mom used to make “boiled” dressing instead of buying Miracle Whip, but I didn’t realize how much better it was. I got my friend’s recipe, but when I got home I started hunting through my cookbooks for other recipes for boiled dressing.

Honestly, there are as many different ways to put the same ingredients together as there are cookbooks, I swear. Not wanting to miss out on the “best” one, I tried several. My friend’s recipe first:

¼ cup vinegar
½ tsp. salt
Dash of pepper
¼ cup water
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp. mustard
2 eggs, well beaten

Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Slowly add eggs. Cook 5 minutes until thick. Cool. Keeps up to 1 month in refrigerator.

To make potato salad: Boil 4 potatoes and 4 eggs until potatoes are tender and eggs hard boiled. Peel potatoes and while warm, add a vinaigrette dressing (such as Italian) to potatoes to be absorbed (about 2 Tbsp.) When potatoes are cool, add peeled minced eggs, celery, onion or scallions or chives and dress with ½ boiled dressing and ½ homemade mayonnaise.

Boiled Salad Dressing (Mrs. Clarence Ike-- 1947 Trinity Lutheran Church, Spring Grove, Minn. Cookbook)

1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup vinegar
1 pinch salt
½ tsp. dry mustard
Butter the size of walnut

Combine all dry ingredients, add to beaten eggs and add vinegar. Cook in double boiler until thick. Add butter last.

This next dressing is suggested for fruit salads:

Juice of 2 lemons
Rind of 1 lemon (grated)
1/3 cup sugar
4 egg yolks, beaten well
1 pint whipped cream

Cook in double boiler. When cool add whipped cream. Pour over fruit salad and refrigerate for 24 hours.—Mrs. C. R. Casterton; Trinity Lutheran Church cookbook

Between the pages of the “Dorcas Cookbook” from the Trinity Lutheran Church, I found an old, yellowing newspaper clipping with a recipe entitled, “Adele Milczarck’s Potato Salad”. I really wanted to give it a try and it was delicious!

12 cups diced, cooked potatoes
12 hard-cooked eggs, diced
1 onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup French dressing (no other info on this dressing—l.g.)
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1 cup water
1 egg
¾ cup salad oil
¼ cup vinegar
2 tsp. prepared mustard
1 Tbsp sugar
3 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. paprika
1 cup evaporated milk
1 Tbsp sugar
6 hard-cooked eggs

Combine potatoes, eggs, onion and French dressing. Chill. Make a smooth paste of cornstarch and water and cook over boiling water until clear, stirring constantly. In a bowl combine egg, oil, vinegar, mustard, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 tsp. salt and paprika. Mix well and add gradually to mixture; beat until smooth. Add evaporated milk, remaining tablespoon sugar and remaining 2 teaspoons salt. Beat until smooth. Cool. Combine with potatoes. Season further, if desired. Put half of potato mixture into serving bowl. Slice 3 of the hard-cooked eggs and lay over salad. Add rest of potatoes. Garnish top with 3 eggs cut into wedges. Chill. Yield: 12 portions.

And just in case you don’t know how to make homemade mayonnaise, here’s an easy and fool-proof way:

Perfect Blender Mayonnaise

1 egg
2 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
½ tsp dry mustard
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup salad oil

1. Break the egg into the container. Add vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, salt and ¼ cup of the oil. 2. Cover and blend on low speed. 3. Immediately remove inner cap or cover and pour in remaining oil in quite a fast stream (do not add it drop by drop). All the oil must be added by the end of 15 seconds blending time. 4. A few drops of oil may remain on the surface of the mayonnaise. Without turning blender off, switch to high speed and blend for just 3 seconds more. Should the mixture fail to thicken, pour three-quarters of it into a measuring cup. Add another egg to the mixture left in the container and start again at step 2, adding the mixture in the measuring cup in the same manner that you originally added the oil.