Lettuce Salad With Piquant Dressing

Salads as we know them today were not common back in the vintage era.  Most of the time you had to use what was on hand and for a large part of the year the only lettuce to be had was iceberg.  I rather like iceberg lettuce even though it has earned an undeserved maligned reputation in recent years when compared to the much vaunted Romaine Lettuce.  What is important to remember is that the water content of iceberg lettuce is much higher and when that is taken into account the nutritional comparison actually evens out between the 2 contenders. 

In this case I needed a simple "salad" to go with a luncheon meal I was making and in one of my old 1920's cookbooks it referenced a "Piquant Dressing" which the recipe was not included (of course).  So it was off to the research again until I found a newspaper clipping from 1929 with this recipe.  Now strictly speaking there are 2 types of piquant dressing.  This one is based on the vinaigrette type French dressings that were popular in the 1920's the other type is based on Russian dressing and came about sometime in the 1930's.  I mixed the ingredients together and stored it in a mason jar in the fridge and just give it a good shake before using.

French Piquant Dressing

3/4 C Sunflower Oil
1/4 C Olive Oil
1/2 C Cider Vinegar
2T Ketchup
1T Onion Juice (grind a quarter of an onion in a blender and strain)
1T Worcestershire Sauce
4 Drops Tabasco 
1tsp Mustard Flour (Coleman's)
2tsp Salt
1/2tsp Pepper
1/4tsp Paprika

Combine ingredients and whisk well until combined and thickened.  Serve on wedges of iceberg lettuce for a 1920's treat.

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