This Simple 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing Was Queen Elizabeth's Favorite

I’m fascinated by the eating habits of the royals. Princess Diana loved bread pudding, Queen Elizabeth hated garlic, and Kate Middleton is obsessed with watermelon salad. Sometimes I think that my life might be easier if I had an entourage of elite chefs preparing all of my meals. 

And while I can’t exactly make that happen, I can get pretty close. That’s because Darren McGrady, a former chef at Buckingham Palace, wrote a book that is half-cookbook, half-memoir of his time in the royal household. It’s called Eating Royally: Recipes and Remembrances From a Palace Kitchen. After checking this out from the library three times in a row, I finally bought myself a copy.

A lot of the recipes are, understandably, complicated. They either use ingredients that are hard to procure outside of the U.K., or require a lot of time and skill. But one stood out to me based purely on its simplicity and its superiority: Queen Elizabeth’s favorite salad dressing. According to McGrady, this French dressing was the Queen’s favorite and “the only requested dressing when dining alone.” 

Queen Elizabeth was admired for her no-nonsense approach to ruling, and the same can be said of this French dressing. Now, this is not the viscous, orange French dressing that you might find at a restaurant. Its “Frenchness” can be attributed to its use of Dijon mustard and fresh tarragon, both staples in French cuisine.

How To Make Queen Elizabeth’s French Dressing

This dressing comes together very quickly—all you have to do is combine all of the ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk until emulsified. Once it turns creamy and opaque, you’re done.

• 1 cup corn oil
• 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

While I’ve never used corn oil in a salad dressing before, I can understand why this recipe uses it. Corn oil is a neutral oil, and doesn’t have a strong flavor like olive oil does. It allows the mustard and tarragon flavor to shine through, with a pop of acid from the white wine vinegar. I only ended up using a few cranks of salt and pepper—the final result is a remarkably delicate and flavorful dressing. 

How I Use Queen Elizabeth's Favorite Dressing

If you don’t have tarragon or don’t like tarragon, you can substitute any fresh herb that you do like. Fresh tarragon is a little hard to find where I live, and I had to make a separate run to the grocery store in order to get some. I think that dill, parsley, or basil would all be great substitutions. 

I made a simple salad of mixed greens, cucumbers, sunflower seeds, and toasted walnuts to test out this dressing. Like any good vinaigrette, it coats greens well without weighing them down. I thought that this dressing did a really good job of elevating and brightening the flavors of my salad ingredients. 

This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of dressing, so it’s a perfect meal prep idea for the beginning of the week. I invested in some glass condiment bottles on Amazon last year, and it’s made a huge difference in ease of storing and using all my homemade dressings and sauces. I put the leftover dressing in the door of my fridge, and decided to continue my Queen Elizabeth-inspired lunch with a nice cup of tea.