Clifton's Cooking Blog: Meta's Sweet 'n Sour Salad Dressing

Meta's Sweet and Sour Salad Dressing

This is an old family recipe for a sweet vinegar and oil dressing it has a few herbs for seasoning. It is quick and simple to make.

photo by KurmanPhotos under Creative Commons Licenses

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurmanphotos/

This recipe has been passed down from Shirley's Grandmother, Meta Wertke, it goes back at least to the 1930’s.

photo by Chris Tse under Creative Commons Licenses

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/asiaticleague/

The Ingredients

Shirley with her Grandmother Meta Wertke circa 1990

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon grated onion

1/3 cup cider vinegar

1/8 teaspoon black pepper, fresh ground is best

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

Mixing Instructions

Place all ingredients in a mason jar.

Cover tightly.

Shake well.

Chill several hours.

Shake again just before serving.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month, but it won’t be around that long.

Meta Wertke from the 1930’s

Meta holding her Great-grand-son Tyler
Her son Russ in the background. circa 1991

Meta Wertke was born, Meta Buchholz, in Chicago IL in 1899, the daughter of German immigrants. She loved to cook and bake. She made everything from scratch, including her salad dressing. All of her meals were healthy and balanced, whether cooking for a group or just for herself. She expected you be at the table and ready to eat when the meal was ready, hot food should be served and eaten hot and the same for cold food.

As she neared the end of her life, she continued to make three meals a day for herself and enjoyed every bite. She enjoyed cooking very much and cooked for herself right up until a few days before her death. Her eye sight was almost gone but she still insisted on cutting up her own chicken and removing the bone from the breast. She said store bought, cut up chicken did not taste as good as when you did it yourself.

Her salad dressing, so simple but loved by everyone who tasted it made its way into many homes over the years.

Shirley