The Secret World of Salad Dressing

Have you ever wondered where Thousand Island Dressing comes from? I mean, it seems to show up everywhere in some form or another- Big Macs, Burgers, Reubens, etc. It's become the go-to special sauce for all kinds of culinary items. I know this probably sounds a little strange, but after church last Sunday the Missus and I took in some breakfast/early lunch at the Village Inn and I sampled my very first Reuben Sandwich. (It was delicious. The one I made last night though, was better.) And the thought came to me: where exactly did Thousand Island Dressing come from?

Well it turns out the Thousand Islands are, in fact, a real place:

Yep, one thousand island in the St. Lawrence River from Kingston, Ontario roughly 50 miles downstream. You might ask, how can you have one thousand islands in one river? Is the St. Lawrence River all that big? Well, I don't think it's that big- I mean, it's big, but not SUPER big- so they decided that if an island was above water year round, have an area greater than one square foot and support at least one tree, then they'd count it. Which means there are some really space limited islands in the Thousand Island chain:

(P.S. I kind of want this house. Flooding would be a bitch to deal with, for obvious reasons, but if you could survive a flood, it'd be awesome.)

But, back to Thousand Island Dressing. The font of all knowledge (Wikipedia) states thusly:

Thousand Island dressing is attested in a 1900 cookbook, in a context implying that it was well-known by then in New Orleans.

According to The Oxford Companion of Food and Drink, "the name presumably comes from the Thousand Islands between the United States and Canada in the St. Lawrence River." In the Thousand Islands area, one common version of the dressing's origins says that a fishing guide's wife, Sophia LaLonde, made the condiment as part of her husband George's shore dinner. Often in this version, actress May Irwin requested the recipe after enjoying it. Irwin in turn gave it to another Thousand Islands summer resident, George Boldt, who was building Boldt Castle in the area. Boldt, as proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, instructed the hotel's maître d'hôtel, Oscar Tschirky, to put the dressing on the menu. A 1959 National Geographic article states, "Thousand Island Dressing was reportedly developed by Boldt's chef."

So, of the salad dressings of the world, Thousand Island seems to be the 'internet viral video' of the bunch. Someone invented it, carried it by word of mouth to someone and once it hit New York City, it went WILD.

And that, kids, is where Thousand Island Dressing comes from.

(Haters: Don't judge me- you know you've thought about it too. I choose to celebrate the small mysteries in life and I ROCK at it. So suck it. (And here's the part where the GI Joe appears out of nowhere and says: 'Now you know' and then you all say 'And KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!')