First let me say a big hi there and hello to everyone. I am very excited to have been asked to be a part of the Carnivale craziness. When Dhympna asked me for a chicken salad recipe I thought this would be a great time for me to scour through a vintage cookbook I found a few months ago at a thrift store. This is no ordinary cookbook. It is a Brown Derby Restaurant Cookbook from 1949. Hollywood artifact score!
The Original Brown Derby restaurant opened in 1934 as a coffee shop and soon grew into a place for Hollywood Royalty to sit down and have a bite. The Restaurant was literally shaped like a man’s derby hat. People like Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart were regular customers stopping for dinner or a snack after a long day on the set. The Cobb Salad was also invented at the Brown Derby. (There, now you have an ice breaker for those boring dinner parties. “Hey baby, do you know where the Cobb Salad was invented? I do.”) The hat itself is now gone, having been the victim of a fire and now part of a Korean restaurant, but the Brown Derby restaurant lives on in a modified form at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – which is in Disney World. Go figure. Anywho, on to the recipe.
Chicken Salad Derby
½ cup Brown Derby Mayonnaise
½ cup lemon juice
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 cup diced cooked chicken, white or dark meat
1 cup celery, diced very small
Salt and pepper
2 lettuce leaves.
Blend together Mayo, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce. In a chilled bowl, using a fork, toss together chicken and celery. Add dressing mixture and toss again. Season to taste with salt and peper. Heap in lettuce cup on chilled plates.
Use can use any mayo you want but if you want to use the Brown Derby style the recipe is below:
Brown Derby Mayonnaise - Makes 1 quart
6 egg yolks
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. English Mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
4 tbs. mild vinegar
3 cups salad oil – (i.e. Olive Oil)
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbs. boiling water
Beat egg yolks with electric beater of French whip. Add salt, mustard, Worcestershire Sauce, and 2 tbs. of vinegar. Add oil in a fine stream, whipping fast to absorb oil. Stop adding if if it is not absorbed. As mixture becomes thick add remaining vinegar and lemon juice. Continue whipping until all the oil, vinegar, and lemon have been used. If mixed correctly all ingredients should be absorbed. Finally whip in the boiling water.
Keep in a cool place, but not under 45 degrees. Never allow to freeze.
There you have it, a little bit of Hollywood history in your kitchen and your belly.
