A Vintage Salad Dressing
That Glorious Quiche of Our Dreams Will Have to Wait
YOU MAY RECALL THAT I SCHEDULED A QUICHE LORRAINE recipe for today, as part of what will be an occasional but ongoing venture into salad-adjacent dishes (set off by my visit to my hometown to stock my Aunt Mariah’s freezer with good things to eat).
I had a very specific treatment of this dish in mind, a nostalgic caper from my days working as the bread girl at a Bavarian(ish) inn and restaurant in Vail, Colorado, the summer before I started college, when it was still as quaint as a ski resort is able to be. They made me wear a dirndl skirt and carry a basket with a handle, like Heidi.
I didn’t quite pull it off—the quiche, I mean. I killed in that skirt.
Back then, quiche was big big big, and the inn served a magnificent and quite unusual slice that imprinted itself on me forever. I’ve searched everywhere for someone, anyone, who remembers it, including on social media, where a lot of the people were not born the first time I ate this quiche.
I’ve turned up quicheless histories of Vail and notes in Gerald Ford’s diary recounting his Vail visits, from his Presidential archives, plus photos of people picnicking in the snow dressed like movie stars. But I did not find my quiche. So my work continues.
To be clear: I created a delicious recipe—Quiche Lorraine is a simple, wonderful dish that’s very hard to mess up. But the quiche in my mind simply has not come to fruition. It happens. You’ll get the final recipe later this week, no matter what. Even if it doesn’t capture my memory perfectly. Because let me tell you, the “dud” in that photo above was exquisite.
But one victory from the trip to my hometown: I found an absolute jewel of a salad dressing while skipping through Mariah’s vintage cookbooks, which is the very reason I love vintage cookbooks. You can turn up recipes and techniques that we’ve forgotten in our mad rush to keep up with the latest food trends, which—what are they even? I checked with the Food Network, and they predict that 2022’s trends are going to include “fishless fish,” THC-laced food and drinks, coffee alternatives, and “eating to support mental health”—although I’d go crazy without coffee.
Anyway, our trend here in the salad lab is going to be olive salad dressing. I don’t think you need to love olives as much as I do to find this dressing ideal for a simple garden salad—or on a more complex salad containing such baubles as almonds, pine nuts, parsley, citrus fruit, red onion, goat cheese, salmon, tuna, roasted peppers, tomatoes, or any of the other foods olives love to hang out with. I’d also make this dressing for any salad that included good homemade croutons or avocado.