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“D” is for Duke’s mayonnaise

“D” is for Duke’s mayonnaise. Eugenia Duke mixed her first batch of mayonnaise in her Greenville home sometime in the early twentieth century. Unlike the commercial versions that were coming on the market, there was no sugar in Duke’s mayonnaise recipe. And thanks to her use of cider vinegar, her product had a pleasing tartness. During World War I Duke sold sandwiches to servicemen stationed at nearby Camp Sevier. Soon soldiers were asking that a jar or two be shipped to far away Georgia or Virginia, and Duke was in the mayonnaise manufacturing business. In 1929 she sold her business along with her prized recipe to the C. F. Sauer Company. In 2019 Falfurrias Capital Partners of Charlotte purchased C. F. Sauer. In 2020 a new collegiate football bowl game was launched in Charlotte-- sponsored by Duke’s Mayonnaise.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.