Green Goddess is a creamy, herbed salad dressing created in the early 1920s by Phillip Roemer, then-executive chef of San Francisco's Palace Hotel. Legend has it that Roemer named his new dressing "Green Goddess" in honor of actor (and hotel guest) George Arliss, the lead in William Archer's play of the same name.
This was a very popular salad dressing in the United States until the 1980s - an indifferent bottled version is still marketed by Kraft/Seven Seas. If you've never tried the fresh version of Green Goddess, you should! The Palace still serves this dressing on a salad of mixed greens topped with fresh vegetables and Dungeness crab- and you make it at home using this recipe:
The Palace Hotel's Green Goddess Dressing
1 cup (240 ml) mayonnaise (homemade or Hellman's)
1/2 cup (120 ml) cultured sour cream
4 tablespoons finely snipped chives
4 tablespoons minced fresh curled parsley
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 anchovy fillets, rinsed, dried and finely minced
Generous inch of salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Just add all the ingredients to a medium mixing bowl and blend thoroughly with a fork or whisk. This can be served immediately, but is best if you store it in the refrigerator a few hours so the flavors can tango a while.
There are many common substitutions found in recipes for Green Goddess. Try replacing the wine vinegar with tarragon vinegar, using 1-1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste rather than fillets, or omit the parsley in favor of chopped, fresh basil. Play with the basic recipe as desired.
Sources:
Rombauer and Becker, Joy of Cooking, 1975 edition
The Plaza Hotel,History of the Green Goddess Dressing
Susan Saperstein, San Francisco’s Green Goddess Dressing
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