Thousand Island dressing

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Thousand Island dressing is a salad dressing (a variant of Russian dressing), commonly made of mayonnaise, ketchup, tabasco and finely chopped vegetables, most often pickles, onions, bell peppers, and green olives; chopped hard-boiled egg is also common.

[edit] Origins

There are multiple conflicting stories about its origins:

• Sophia LaLonde invented it at Chicago's Blackstone Hotel in 1910^[1] substituting mayonnaise for the yogurt used in Russian dressing, and added pickle relish, chives and sometimes chopped hard-boiled eggs.
• The dressing was popularized by one of her dinner guests, actress May Irwin, who gave the condiment its name, after LaLonde's home, the Thousand Islands region of upstate New York and Eastern Ontario.
• The name refers to the multitude of small specks of pickle usually found in the dressing.
• George Boldt, of Waldorf-Astoria Hotel fame, popularized it by instructing his maitre d'hotel, Oscar Tschirky, to put the dressing on the hotel's menu. Boldt had a home called Boldt Castle on one of the Thousand Islands.

[edit] Uses

Thousand Island dressing is sometimes used as an ingredient in a Reuben sandwich, along with corned beef, sauerkraut, and marble rye bread (although Russian dressing is used in the authentic recipe).

In the 1950s, Thousand Island dressing became a standard condiment, used on sandwiches and salads alike. It is widely used in fast-food restaurants in America. It is commonly used on hamburgers;^[2] in particular, McDonald's Big Mac sauce is a form of Thousand Island Dressing.

[edit] References