On Wednesday of last week, one of my errands was to pick up some things from the Woolworths supermarket near The Base, something I mentioned in a post a couple days later. As I was making my way through the shop, I noticed the display in the photo above. I shared the photo on my personal Facebook once I got home and sarcastically wrote, “Does this Woolworths have enough Kiwi Onion Dip ingredients to last until Christmas? [Of course not!] 😁”.
This was essentially a joke for my fellow Kiwis because we all know how “Kiwi Onion Dip” is often a staple at family gatherings, especially at Christmas. And, we also know that supermarkets often run out before Christmas. Obviously my American friends and whānau weren’t in on the joke, though they had little trouble with my joking comment, “I love how some customer left a random bag of chips on the display, like a real-life 'serving suggestion' photo.”
This issue was, as so often happens, cultural differences, but the discussions in the comments over the following couple days ended up leading me to educate myself about something I thought I knew well: Kiwi Onion Dip.
The dip was created by Rosemary Dempsey sometime in the 1950s or 60s in Nestle’s Test Kitchen in New Zealand. They wanted to combine Nestle products to boost sales, and both of the main ingredients were just those sorts of products. The OG recipe is on Nestle’s Maggi website, but it’s only got three ingredients: One 250ml can of Nestle Reduced Cream combined with one packet of Maggi Onion Soup mix, and one tablespoon of lemon juice. Mix thoroughly and put in the fridge to set (even the night before the party).
My variation on the dip is to use white vinegar (around one teaspoon) because it has no real flavour of its own, but still helps reduce the fatty feel like the lemon juice does. I got the idea from the Maggi soup packet itself, which suggests using lemon juice or vinegar. I also add a bit of garlic powder (just because) and a little bit of sugar because the dip, particularly when combined with potato chips, can be very salty, and the sugar helps that a bit.
That sets the stage, but the discussion also included mentions of Americans’ French Onion Dip, and exactly how fatty the reduced cream is.
The dip Americans call French Onion Dip, and basically uses dehydrated French onion soup mix (where the name comes from) mixed with sour cream. Developed by Lipton, it was original known as “Lipton California Dip”. The two main ingredients, though, are a creamy refrigerated dairy product combined with the dry soup mix, which is what makes it so similar to Kiwi Onion Dip. But that’s really all the similarity there is.
Sour cream is a chilled dairy product, while reduced cream is a manufactured product that can be kept at room temperature (what the supermarket industry calls “shelf stable”, though that name isn’t really used in New Zealand). The two soup mixes are quite different, too.
Because of the differences in the ingredients, French Onion Dip and Kiwi Onion Dip don’t taste very similar, which is probably no surprise. I can attest to that having made both dips in their respective homelands.
As we discussed these dips more, I began to wonder about fat content, so I looked it up: Reduced cream (sometimes apparently called “light cream” in the USA) has the same amount of fat by weight (around 21%) as sour cream sold in New Zealand. However, reduced cream has around 38% less fat than actual thickened cream (overseas, actual thickened cream is called heavy cream or heavy whipping cream). Butter in New Zealand is around 81% fat, give or take, by weight.
The nutritional profiles of the two dry soup mixes will vary depending on what soup mix is used, but it’s probably safe to assume they’re high in sodium (the New Zealand versions are). But, then, “chip and dip” is supposed to be a treat, not a main part of anyone’s diet.
The Nestle brand of reduced cream is made in Mexico (a fact I’d forgotten), and so is the Woolworths own-brand version. The Woolworths version is slightly higher in fat than the Nestle version, and the two name-brand sour creams made in New Zealand have a similarly slight difference in fat content. Maggi’s Onion Soup mix is “proudly blended in New Zealand from local and imported ingredients”. Whenever I see that sort of statement on a supermarket product, I always assume that the product is mainly overseas ingredients, with perhaps only the packaging made in New Zealand. It’s hard not to be cynical about corporations these days.
There are some name-brand refrigerated onion dips in New Zealand, but none of them are similar to either the American dip or the New Zealand one. There’s an imported refrigerated “French onion” dip made in Australia, which is at a higher price point than most NZ-made refrigerated dips.
At this point, I realised that my dip into snack food isn’t over quite yet.
Nestle’s Maggi brand includes a “French Onion Soup” mix, and the back of the packet uses the same instructions for making it into dip as for our traditional Kiwi Onion Dip. However, I’m curious how that soup mix combined with sour cream would taste, so this summer I intend to make some to find out. Will it be like what I used to make when I lived in the USA? Or, will it be a bowl of yuck? Stay tuned.
Right now, though, you’ll have to excuse me. For some reason, I’m quite hungry.
Important Note: The names of brands/products/companies listed in this post are all registered trademarks, and are used here for purposes of description and clarity. No company or entity provided any support or payment for this blog post, and all products were purchased by me at normal consumer prices. So, the opinions I expressed are my own genuinely held opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of manufacturers, retailers, or any known human being, alive or dead, real or corporate. Just so we’re clear.
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