What is Miracle Whip®?
Miracle Whip® is a condiment manufactured by Kraft Foods. It is used both as a salad dressing and a sandwich spread, like its closely related cousin, mayonnaise. The two foods are closely related enough to be topics of acrimony, as many people have a strong preference for either mayonnaise or Miracle Whip®. In any event, Miracle Whip® is typically available at large markets, and Kraft offers a number of packaging options including squeeze bottles for cooks in a hurry.
According to some accounts, the history of Miracle Whip® begins in 1931, when a man named Max Crosset developed a salad dressing he called Mac Crosset's X-tra Fine Salad Dressing in Salem, Illinois. Crosset used the dressing in his eponymous cafe, later selling it to Kraft Foods. The company disputes this, however, claiming that the recipe was developed in-house. Kraft introduced Miracle Whip® to the general public in 1933, at the Chicago World's Fair, where Kraft constructed a complete sterile kitchen enclosed in glass so that visitors to the fair could watch the production of Miracle Whip®.
Kraft claims that this condiment is named for the machine which was developed for mass production of Miracle Whip®. Like mayonnaise, Miracle Whip® is an emulsion of eggs, oil, and sugars, but it is somewhat tricky to blend the emulsion to the desired consistency. An enterprising Kraft engineer developed a machine which could blend the ingredients properly, dubbing it the "Miracle Whip," and the name apparently caught on with Kraft management.
This product has a naturally sweet flavor, which is noticeable if tasted side-by-side with mayonnaise. It is often used as a replacement for mayonnaise, because it is much lower in fat than traditional mayonnaise. Miracle Whip® can be spread on sandwiches, blended into salad dressings, mixed with other ingredients to create a dip, and used in a variety of other ways, depending on personal taste.
You may have experienced a taste of the Miracle Whip® vs mayonnaise debate for yourself. Many people grow up in a household which eats one or the other, acquiring a fondness which is hard to break. The two products are in fact different, so it is perhaps not surprising that people sometimes express a strong preference for mayonnaise or Miracle Whip®.
Written by S.E. Smith
