In August 2019, a Wyoming woman claimed she was attacked by Dorothy Lynch.
The perpetrator was not human, but a fiery orange salad dressing come to life, like something from a horror movie. The woman alleged that the three-dollar bottle caused three thousand dollars’ worth of damage, possessed not by spirits but by a bacteria called lactobacillus, which caused it to spew uncontrollably.
Dorothy was a real person. She and her husband ran the Legion Club restaurant in St. Paul, Nebraska. Her homemade, French-like salad dressing was so popular that she began bottling it in the 1940s. Today, it’s manufactured in Duncan, population 351, and distributed in thirty-five states, though most of it sells in Nebraska.
The perpetrator was not human, but a fiery orange salad dressing come to life, like something from a horror movie. The woman alleged that the three-dollar bottle caused three thousand dollars’ worth of damage, possessed not by spirits but by a bacteria called lactobacillus, which caused it to spew uncontrollably.
Gordon “Mac” Hull bought the recipe in 1964, the year he founded Tasty Toppings Inc. Hull still runs Tasty Toppings, as well as Duster’s restaurant in nearby Columbus. Gogo Erlandson, who used to work at Duster’s, told me that the first time she served him, “I asked him what kind of dressing he wanted on his salad, and he just blankly looked at me until I guessed Dorothy Lynch.” Such things are unspoken on the Plains.
The patented recipe is closely guarded secret, but it’s tomato-based and flavored with celery seed, plus other spices that give it a distinctive sweet-and-spicy taste.
Nebraskans so covet the dressing that many children of the corn have bottles shipped to the far corners of the earth. Others stockpile it on trips home. My own grandmother smuggled Dorothy across state lines while living on the East Coast. When I phoned her to confirm that, she said, “Oh yeah, we used to do it all the time.” She told me that she likes it because “It’s kind of in between,” a little sweet and “not as tart as Italian.”
Midway through our conversation, her voice grew distant as she went to retrieve a bottle from the fridge and directed me to the website for any further questions.
Per the website, the dressing can be used in all kinds of ways—as a marinade, a dipping sauce, a pizza base, a ketchup alternative, a mayo substitute in potato salad, a barbecue sauce, and more. I’d only ever known Dorothy Lynch as God intended, as a salad dressing, but one of the more ambitious recipes caught my eye: a Dorothy-infused bundt cake that won an Honorable Mention at the 2012 Iowa State Fair.
Spiced Mandarin Orange Bundt Cake
Courtesy of Dorothy Lynch
Serves 6
Ingredients
¾ cup butter, softened
1 cup + ¾ cup sugar, separated
2 large eggs
½ cup Dorothy Lynch dressing
¼ cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 ¼ cup flour
¾ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
2 11-oz. cans mandarin oranges, drained and chopped
½ cup orange juice
1 tbsp. orange liqueur
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and 1 cup sugar until combined. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in Dorothy Lynch, sour cream, and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add to creamed mixture and mix until blended. Fold in mandarin oranges, and spoon mixture into a greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then invert onto wire rack.
For the glaze, combine orange juice, liqueur and 3/4 cup sugar. Cook until sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Slowly brush glaze over cake, repeating until glaze is gone.
