1966 WDEC - Nevada - Snow Dressing

There was no way I was going to make the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery "Virginia City Salad," a mix of cabbage, pineapple, mini-marshmallows, and nuts. But I was intrigued by the egg-white-based Snow Dressing. So, with a head of cabbage on hand, I decided to back up a couple of states and try it as a simple coleslaw dressing.

Snow Dressing
(Makes enough for 4 cups shredded cabbage)
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp boiling water
1/4 cup cider vinegar
Juice of 3 lemons
4 egg whites, stiffly beaten
(4 cups shredded cabbage for the salad base)

Mix sugar and flour and salt in a saucepan. Add water, vinegar, and lemon juice. Stir until well blended. Fold in beaten egg whites. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and thick. Chill and serve on top of salad.

Cooking Notes: I cut the sugar by about 25% of what was called for. Once the egg whites were stirred in, the mixture was so thick and smooth anyway that it was hard for me to tell how long to cook this. I just kept cooking and stirring until it seemed - well - cooked, and it looked like parts were going to start sticking to the bottom of the pan. But I have no idea if it was the way it was supposed to be. Rather than have people trying to stir the "snow" into individual salad bowls, I served it as shown in the first post picture and then stirred it all together before dividing it up.

Eating Notes: Well, to us, it was vile. I thought the lemon juice and vinegar would balance the sweetness somewhat, but instead the closest thing I can compare the dressing to is lemon meringue pie. And for us, pie is just not a good thing to mix up with cabbage. One small silver lining is that the meringue itself, texturally, did work nicely, and this has given me some ideas for future dressing experiments, but without the sugar.