7 nostalgic salad dressings from decades past are back in style with home chefs

For decades, tangy, creamy and creative concoctions have defined the American salad bowl.

But in today’s age of avocado-lime farms and green goddesses, many old-school sauces have quietly disappeared from grocery store shelves and dinner tables.

Still, nostalgic home cooks are keeping the classics alive, recreating them, sharing their own takes, and enjoying the memories that come with them.

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“Catalina tastes like family gossip and the holidays,” one Reddit user joked about the 1960s favorite in the r/Old_Recipes thread.

Another recalled: “Hot bacon dip; smelled like feet but everyone loved it.”

Another said, “Spinach salad with bacon dressing was the fancy salad of my childhood. … It looked so exotic!”

Here are seven retro dressings that once ruled America’s refrigerator door.

1. Pirate sauce

In 1954, Louis Milani Foods Co. Buccaneer sauce, trademarked by Buccaneer, was marketed as an “exciting dressing”. [that] Adds a touch of adventure to salads and sandwiches [and] “hot vegetables” According to Chowhound.

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It was popular in the 1970s when Louis Milani Foods, now Kent Precision Foods, discontinued it.

While the exact flavor profile and original recipe appear to have been lost to time, aficionados remember that the tangy, savory, umami-tinged flavor comes from mayonnaise, honey mustard, garlic powder, and paprika.

2. Louis sauce

Not to be confused with the similarly creamy, pink-hued Thousand Island, Louis sauce packs a flavorful punch with Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, horseradish, and hot sauce.

Louis dressing is similar to the pink Thousand Island dressing shown above. (iStock)

A signature ingredient in the Pacific Northwest’s classic Crab Louie salad, its mild spiciness and tangy flavor make it a versatile choice for seafood salads.

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The history of Crab Louis dates back to a 1912 recipe from the Portland Jewish Women’s Neighborhood Cookbook Council. It was accompanied by lettuce and a hard-boiled egg, Chowhound reported; early versions appeared on menus in San Francisco, as well as Portland, Oregon, and Spokane, Washington, in the early 20th century.

3. Mayfair sauce

With its origins tied to both the 1904 World’s Fair and the Mayfair Hotel, St. Mayfair sauce, a creation in St. Louis, Missouri, has long puzzled food historians with its contradictory history.

Mayfair dressing, Caesar’s celery-forward cousin shown above, dates back to the early 20th century. (iStock)

“There’s a dressing I only had in St. Louis called Mayfair dressing, which was developed for the 1904 World’s Fair,” one Reddit user fondly recalled. “Celery is like a progressive Caesar.”

The dressing replaces the Parmesan with raw celery and onion, giving it a chunky texture with an anchovy-rich base.

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“Really delicious if you like celery,” another reviewer said.

4. Boiled sauce

According to the food news review site, boiled vinaigrette, a Southern favorite, was made by cooking eggs, flour, mustard and vinegar in a double boiler to create a sauce somewhere between mayonnaise and hollandaise. Take away.

The dressing imparted a peppery, vinegary flavor that made it a favorite in hearty salads and vegetable dishes. The lack of oil made it an affordable alternative.

Nostalgic salad dressings were a staple of family dinners, church dinners, and mid-century cuisine. (FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“Boiled dressing!” one Reddit user commented. “It’s so amazing. It’s something between sweet and savory. … Think lemon curd but use mustard and vinegar instead of lemon.”

5. Sour cream sauce

Originating in Central and Eastern Europe, sour cream sauce is thinned with lemon juice or vinegar, brightened with Dijon mustard, and sometimes flavored with sugar and paprika for brightening dressings on potato or egg salads.

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It’s a staple for many home cooks, who garnish it with fresh herbs or green onions.

Mid-century cooks often prepared their creamy sauces from mayonnaise and sour cream. (iStock)

6. Tomato-based sauces

Tomato-based dressings once added a pop of color and tang to mid-century salads, pioneered by Kraft’s Catalina dressings of the 1960s.

Made with tomato puree, vinegar, sugar, and spices, these sauces inspired later favorites like bacon and tomato sauce.

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Meanwhile, Nebraska’s Dorothy Lynch sauce, created in the 1940s using tomato soup, proves that tomato-based sauces have a legacy far beyond French sauce.

A tomato soup-based sauce was the star of many church dinners in the 1960s, as one social media user fondly recalls.

7. Poppy seed and celery seed sauce

Vintage recipes and Reddit threads are helping to revive forgotten salad dressings. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service)

Along with Catalina, poppy seed and celery seed sauces also dominated supermarket shelves throughout the 1970s, each offering a different take on “sweet and tangy.”

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Dating back to the 1960s, celery seed sauce is a mixture of oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard and celery seeds. Poppy seed sauce, which became popular in the 1950s, consists of a combination of sugar, vinegar, mustard, onion and oil with poppy seeds.

“My mom used to make celery seed sauce from the 1965 cookbook ‘Better Homes and Gardens.’ It’s basically sweet-and-sour sauce with poppy seeds made from scratch, but with celery seeds used instead,” one Redditor recalled. “Very good.”