Lucille Ball was an icon of the small screen and the stage, best known for her impeccable comedy chops, her trailblazing television career, her shock of red hair, her pre-dinner bourbons, and her needlessly complicated salad dressing recipe. Wait, what was that last one? Yes, indeed. Before we knew her as Lucy Ricardo in “I Love Lucy,” Ball contributed a salad dressing to a 1938 book called “Famous Stars Favorite Foods,” as reported by Food Family Ephemera, and it’s quite the recipe.
The dressing, which is simply titled “Salad Dressing” in the book, is a type of vinaigrette made with a combination of spices, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, and salad oil (which is any oil that has a nice flavor for salads). But there is one interesting ingredient Ball adds that you don’t often find in salad dressing: ketchup (or, as it’s written in the recipe, catsup).
Together, these ingredients seem like they would form a tangy, sweet, salty, and savory mixture reminiscent of French dressing or Catalina dressing, though there is a difference between the two. It sounds like Ball’s dressing would be delicious over a garden salad with lots of fresh veggies, like sliced cucumbers, shaved carrots, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and more. But the method Ball outlines for making the dressing is so labor-intensive, we’re wondering if she wasn’t pulling the reader’s leg — something she was known for being excellent at.
How to make Lucille Ball’s salad dressing
In order to make Lucille Ball’s salad dressing, you have to boil 1 cup of water with ⅞ of a cup of sugar “until it makes a soft ball in cold water,” and let the mixture cool. In the meantime, grate one small onion and one clove of garlic into 2 tablespoons of vinegar (the recipe doesn’t specify which kind) and ½ cup of lemon juice. Then strain the mixture and keep only the liquid. To the garlicky, oniony liquid, add 1 teaspoon each of salt, paprika, celery salt, and dry mustard, then add 1 cup of salad oil and ¼ cup of ketchup. Finally, add the cooled sugar/water syrup to the mixture and mix with an egg beater.
For a salad dressing recipe, it sure does require some specific and involved processes. But in 1938, there was much less TV to watch and consequently, much more time to spend making salad dressing. And with the FDA’s revised French dressing rules, you may want to make your own similar dressing at home, so it’s the perfect excuse to try Ball’s recipe!
