A few years ago, one of my son's high school friends came to
dinner, and after trying my homemade salad dressing, said,
"Mrs. Montero, this is the best dressing I've ever had!
Why don't you bottle it?" My husband looked at me and
said, "It's not a bad idea..."
In May of 1992 "Harriet's Original" was born in
Austin, Texas, and I took my first bottle of Italian Gourmet
dressing to the grocery director of our neighborhood Tom Thumb
supermarket. After tasting it, he placed his first order and
designated an eye-level space on the shelf for our dressing.
When "Harriet's Original" dressing was requested
by other stores in the local market, we began distributing
it to stores in San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth.
By this time, low-fat food was becoming very popular, so
we began bottling our Low Fat Italian which was an instant
hit since being all natural, it tasted much better than the
other low fat dressings, and didn't have the "after-taste"
of preservatives and artificial flavorings.
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Our Preparation and Bottling
Facility in Austin Texas |
I love vinegar and garlic, so I decided to prepare my Red
Wine Vinaigrette with plenty of fresh garlic, mustard and
red wine vinegar. It became another best seller because it
has less oil than other vinaigrettes and more oil can be added
as the bottle empties.
Then, of course, we couldn't leave out the king of dressings:
the traditional Caesar with lots of parmesan cheese, fresh
garlic and a touch of anchovies.
We are in Texas, so why not have a "spicy" dressing
to awaken the taste buds. When our Texas Ranch hit the shelves,
it was so successful that people who had tried it in Texas
began ordering it from us directly when they couldn't find
it in other parts of the country.
 For
those who prefer a sweet dressing, or need it for a specific
salad or receipe, I developed our Honey Mustard Dressing which
is not too sweet, not too tangy — a perfect balance
of honey/mustard with a tad of fresh garlic and black pepper.
Read all about our new flavors: Zesty Cilantro Dressing and Chipotle Dip.
Enjoy them!
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