All my life I’ve been dressing my salad with Rose’s Vinaigrette. It’s what made me love and eat the salad my mom Rose wanted us to eat most days to prevent scurvy (just kidding, but that’s what she said). My dad waxed on and on about how it’s the only dressing he ever wanted on his salad. Most nights that meant cold, crisp, dry romaine or Bibb lettuce tossed with either a little thinly sliced red onion or scallions. Mom even put the salad plates in the freezer, so when that salad hit your place at the table, everything had been done to make it appetizing.
One of the things I’m most grateful for in my life is that I sat Mom down and insisted on following her preparation process until I had all the quantities written down exactly as she did it. Rose was an improviser and didn’t bother much with a recipe. An artist at heart, that’s how she lived her life in more places than the kitchen. She insisted it was the combination of two acids, red wine vinegar and lemon juice, that made the difference in her salad dressing. She used garlic. I prefer shallot—I think it’s a little milder, but garlic will do. Worcestershire sauce was never far from her grasp when cooking, so she shook a little in, although I find it unnecessary. The sweet balance was important to her. Enough but not too much. A large batch was always made and sitting in a reused cleaned jar on the top shelf of the refrigerator, never lingering too long without a refill.
When I first published Rose’s recipe in 2009 in the cookbook Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys, it didn’t take long before it had its own Pinterest page. Subsequently, any time I mention it or post about it, fans come out of the woodwork to say that they’ve been using it from the very beginning. Mom would be surprised to know she’s immortalized in salad dressing.
Recently we made a video for TikTok and Instagram. I was so tired by the end of that shoot day that I sat down, in her kitchen, to film the last recipe of the day. Per usual, I pulled out a clean reusable jar, the ingredients and my measuring tools and proceeded to make the dressing. When posted, I thought—do people really need a vinaigrette video? Compared to chocolate pudding, pancakes and steak, that video reached over 2 million views. Rose’s vinaigrette officially went viral.
Watch Lucinda make Rose’s Vinaigrette on TikTok
When pondering how and why that happened, two factors arise. One, we were in the middle of a national contaminated lettuce recall (from one company, but people panicked), and followers were mystified that I’d post a sauce meant for the reviled (and misunderstood) leafy green lettuce. It never occurred to me. Secondly, I was using our proprietary Mad Hungry measuring spoons, designed to sit upright in a crock. I designed them after being sick and tired of always combing through drawers to find the cups and spoons, once fixed together on a little round silver loop but now spread all over the kitchen drawers. I wanted to grab them from a crock, like a spoon or spurtle. We made the teaspoons double-sided…tablespoon/teaspoon and half teaspoon/quarter teaspoon. The cup measure has a marker for a half cup. We made the set several years ago in both wood and silicone and sold out of everything, yet our retail partner hemmed and hawed about reordering.
Then TikTok, and the brouhaha that erupted during my salad dressing video. SO many followers wanted to know where to buy the tools I was using. SO many others were incensed, viscerally provoked by hatred of the tools. Who could hate measuring spoons as much as, say, your political opponent? And then use the words “angry” and “irksome” to describe having to see them in use…making SALAD dressing! Soon others responded to say—“for heaven’s sakes, she’s only making a recipe. You don’t need to use them!”
SO, there you have it…the viral trifecta. An iconic recipe, a national food recall, and controversial implements all rolled up into a phenomenon. Meanwhile, I just wanted to offer a damn good dressing devised by my mom to get her family to eat salad.
(The measuring spoons are back the third week of November, in sage, on our TikTok Shop. Sign up on the product page and we’ll tell you the day they land.)
Rose’s Vinaigrette
Makes 1 cup
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot or garlic
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
- ¾ teaspoon coarse salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- In the bottom of a clean jar, mash together the shallot, mustard, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Pour in the vinegar, lemon juice, and olive oil. Cover tightly and shake well to combine and emulsify. Add salt and pepper to taste. Store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
From Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys (Artisan, 2009).
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The salad dressing Lucinda’s mother Rose made every night got two million views on TikTok. A lettuce recall, a pair of measuring spoons, and a damn good dressing. Recipe included. -
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