Dorking Road

My second circuit on return from the other island was a stroll up to Dorking Road and back, reasonably early in the morning and heat was not a big problem.

I could tell I was getting warm, as a few of the tabs they use when taking a cardiogram were to be found on the pavement, snapped above. Just the thing for small people to use to play at doctors, nurses and hospitals.

On the way back, I found that the bank fall, previously noticed at reference 3, was now home to some quite decent blackberries.

More of them, outside Epsom Autos.

Picking up two more washers for my collection along the way. I have still not solved the stink problem in the washer pot. Maybe I need to give them a good wash. Maybe, even, some sort of household hygiene chemical.

The rest of the day was given over to the compost bin, previously noticed. As was the good condition of the Carex pendula, snapped above. It seems to manage better than the grass, lower right, despite my notion that it is a sort of sedge which is quite keen on water too.

At reference 4, Wikipedia confirms sedge and adds: 'it occurs in woodland, scrubland, hedges and beside streams, preferring damp, heavy clay soils'.  Clay we can do, and damp we can do in the spring: maybe that is enough. 

That evening the matter of Mayonnaise vs. Salad Cream came up again. I use salad cream in chopped eggs, tuna fish and things of that sort, never in dollops on lettuce. While I do not care for mayonnaise at all. My attitude (for which see reference 5) is clear enough, but the reason why is not. Perhaps attitudes are accessible, robust cerebral structures, while the facts and events which drove those attitudes in the first place are further down, perhaps lost. From where I associate to the convenience of teaching a child that X is bad and Y is good, without having to bother about the reason why. The good and bad attributes stick, and that is good enough.

Curiously, given that I do not care for vinegar in many of the contexts in which it is used, the answer seems to be that salad cream is mainly vinegar, while mayonnaise is mainly oil, with dollops of egg and sugar. A much more unhealthy food.

Littré has the origin of the word 'mayonnaise' uncertain. OED just says the word is French of uncertain origin, although he does add that it arrived in this country in the mid 19th century. But I want more and go on to dig deeper.

Reference 6. Mayonnaise appears at No.3 in the section on sauces. Very much the ingredients above, but with the warning that mixing the stuff by hand is quite tricky. A warning with BH confirms, although I have no idea when she might have made the stuff. Not on my watch!

I failed to find anything like salad cream. Perhaps because the book is not strong on green salads made with lettuce. At least, I failed to find them.

Aside, Gemini explains that 'Mariette' is the name given to a series of food columnists writing for a popular women's magazine, the 'parent publication, the famous women's magazine Le Petit Écho de la Mode'. All part of a successful branding operation. A story which fits well enough with a quick peek at reference 7.

Reference 9. A whole chapter on salad dressings, with French dressings and Mayonnaises both prominent. Lots of variations. The French dressings contain vinegar as well as oil, but not as much oil as our Salad Cream. While the Mayonnaises are variations on the Sainsbury's theme.

There are also some salad creams - but these involve milk or cream and rather less vinegar. Maybe the ancestor of the stuff invented by Heinz?

Gemini explains all. The Anglos first moved from mayonnaise to boiled dressings and from there to the bottled, factory product that I go for. I associate to all those people who prefer Bird's Custard to the real thing. And all those who have no idea what the real thing is... I suppose that bottled mayonnaise came later, when food science had moved on a bit.

And I have learned the Heinz arrived in this country, at Fortum & Mason, before the start of the First War. While I had thought that they were a more or less exclusively US operation until much more recently.

Reference 10. I found salad dressings near the end of the section on cold dishes and appetizers. Starting with mayonnaise and ending with vinegar and oil dressing - this last very much the sort of thing that a former correspondent used to put on his green salads. Too vinegary for me. Some cold sauces involving dairy. But nothing much like our salad cream, perhaps because that is a factory product, designed to mimic  something else.

Maybe it will stick now.

PS 1: earlier in the month, at reference 1, I noticed signs of the builder's yard on Station Approach being dismantled. At that time, I thought it might have been there twenty years. But then, yesterday afternoon, in the margins of something else, I came across reference 2, from which I learn that it has been there about five years. So there.

Checking this morning, I find that it has all gone. And the site has cleaned up pretty well after five years' wear and tear.

PS 2: I decided not to investigate what this advertisement, which turned up in my email, is all about.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/wigmore-last.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/12/art-from-more-than-one-country.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-end-of-month.html. A post that took some finding, not least because I was not quite sure in which volume of the archive to look. Eventually turned up on the key 'timber'.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carex_pendula.

Reference 5: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/more-davidson.html.

Reference 6: La cuisine familiale - Mariette, Montsouris - 1923, 1969.

Reference 7: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Petit_%C3%89cho_de_la_mode.

Reference 8: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2016/01/truffes.html. Previous notice, with picture, from way back.

Reference 9: The Boston Cooking School cook book - Fannie Merritt Farmer - 1896, 1931.

Reference 10: Book of tasty and healthy food - Ministry of the Food Industry, USSR - 1939, 2012.

Group search key: 20260720.