Dip right in
The 1950s love affair continues with healthier options
By Emily Nunn
- CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Updated: 07/09/08 6:59 AM
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- Chips and dip might be known as party food, but a variety of tasty, healthier dips can now be found in stores.
Hey, how come people don’t have dip for dinner? Why is it only a snack, why can’t it be a meal, you know? I don’t understand stuff like that.”
We don’t understand either, but it’s also hard to fathom how this perfectly reasonable question was used as a laugh line on “Seinfeld” years ago.
When did dip become a joke? Clearly it was after the great dip rush of the early ’50s, which began when a recipe for clam dip presented on television’s “Kraft Music Hall” caused such excitement that the next day New York City sold out of canned clams.
On the other coast, in 1952, a California housewife mixed an envelope of Lipton’s onion soup mix into sour cream and set off a similar craze. According to Jean Anderson’s “The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century,” “Lipton executives were ecstatic. They tracked down the recipe, perfected it, and beginning in 1958, printed it on every box of Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup Mix.” It was known as California Dip.
The Golden Age of Dip lasted well into the ’80s, when cookouts and cocktail parties across America included such classics as French onion, hot crab, Ranch and various cheese dips, such as Roquefort sour cream.
But what was once a homemade specialty was now mass-produced, and more easily available. We kind of overdid it, until dip and chips took on a junk-food status.
It was a dark time, when a person had to sneak around just to eat a whole container of grocery store dip with a bag of Ruffles.
Today, it’s plain to see that a revolution has been taking place, one that embraces all dunkers and dips. Once described by John F. Mariani (in his 1983 “Dictionary of American Food and Drink”) as “a condiment, often made with mayonnaise or sour cream, into which one dips any of a variety of vegetables or snacks,” a dip — and its dunkers — is not so easily defined today.
“When you go to a store now,” said Carol Murphy Clyne, who teaches a popular tapas class at the Culinary Institute of America, “there are so many dips that are freshly made and natural, with fewer preservatives: tapenades, bean dips and the Greek-yogurt based dips. ”
Roasted Red Pepper Dip
3 large red bell peppers
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1/2 to 1 cup ricotta cheese, drained
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
Heat broiler or grill. Roast the peppers and garlic cloves on a foil-covered broiler rack, turning as needed, until skins blacken on all sides, about 30 minutes.
Place peppers in a small brown paper bag (or place in a bowl; cover with plastic wrap) until cool. Remove skin and seeds.
Place peppers in bowl of a food processor; squeeze roasted garlic out of skins into the bowl. Pulse until nearly pureed.
Add z cup of the ricotta cheese and salt to taste.
Pulse until well blended, adding more cheese, if needed for dipping consistency. Makes b cup.
Nutrition information per tablespoon:
31 calories, 38% of calories from fat, 1 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 3 g carbohydrates,
2 g protein, 107 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
BLT Dip
4 slices bacon
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup each: mayonnaise, low-fat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup arugula, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered
Place the bacon in a medium skillet over medium heat; cook until crisp 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with a paper towel.
Combine the onions, mayonnaise, yogurt, arugula, salt and pepper to taste in a food processor; pulse until chunky.
Crumble the bacon into the bowl; stir into the mayonnaise mixture. Stir in the tomatoes. Makes 3 cups
Nutrition information per tablespoon: 13 calories, 1 g fat, 1 mg cholesterol, 0 g carbohydrates, 32 mg sodium
Kraft Music Hall Clam Appetizer Dip
1 clove garlic, halved
1 can (8 ounces) minced clams, drained, 1/4 of liquid reserved
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
Rub a bowl with the garlic halves;. Combine clams, cream cheese, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste, stirring until well blended. Add the reserved clam liquid to spread. Cover; refrigerate 2 hours. Nutrition information per tablespoon: 71 calories, 5g fat, 3g saturated fat, 1g carbs, 5g protein, 136 mg sodium
