Before Caesar, There Was This Celery-Forward Hotel Salad Dressing

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The green salad has evolved over time to include countless variations, ingredients, and methods of preparation. Now more trendy than ever, it's interesting to look back at vintage salads to gain a new appreciation for long forgotten recipes and inspiration for making modern updates to old favorites. Among the many old-school salad dressings we rarely see anymore, Mayfair dressing is particularly unique for its umami profile and its similarity to Caesar dressing, despite predating it by a number of years. 

Much like the classic Waldorf salad, the Mayfair salad and its accompanying dressing is named for the hotel where it originated, the Mayfair Hotel in St. Louis. The original dressing recipe is built around fresh celery and accompanied by anchovies, eggs, mustard, and oil, along with fresh onion, garlic, black pepper, and lemon juice, all of which is blended together to create a smooth salad dressing.

Mayfair dressing made its debut among the original recipes at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair Exhibition, two decades before Caesar dressing followed in July of 1924. While the ham and cheese-heavy Mayfair salad is a relic of the past, there's no reason you can't bring it into the modern day with a few twists.

The original recipe for a Mayfair salad included pieces of julienned ham and Swiss cheese, Romaine lettuce, and croutons, tossed in the signature dressing. While this style of salad errs on the old-school side, you can easily update it to suit your tastes. For one, swap out the Romaine lettuce for other leafy greens such as spring mix, kale, spinach, or arugula. If ham and Swiss aren't your faves, try using fresh mozzarella and chopped pieces of cooked bacon or pancetta.

While the salad dressing itself was made using eggs and what was then known as "salad oil," you can update this by swapping in mayonnaise. Additionally, if you happen to have a tube of anchovy paste on-hand, you can swap this in place of the anchovy filets. Alternatively, you can try a different type of tinned fish to experiment with other flavors. If you don't have fresh celery, take some inspiration from another long-forgotten salad dressing and try using a pinch of celery seed instead.

Beyond a Mayfair Hotel-inspired salad, try this using dressing in a standard Caesar salad for a taste of the past that dates even farther back. You can also use it as a dipping sauce, sandwich spread, or marinade. Lean into the tangy flavors of this historic hotel creation.