Of Research and Rabbit Holes

Ticetonyk was also the home of the great estate of one of New York’s most prominent self-made millionaires: Richard Hellmann – of yes, that Hellmann fame. The venture currently known as the Onteora Mountain House was once the summer retreat of an immigrant who parlayed his marriage to the daughter of a New York City delicatessen owner into a condiment empire that sold his ready-made mayonnaise at first in bulk to other stores, and then to consumers, in clear glass jars that could be reused for home canning at the cost of a 1 cent rubber rung. So successful was the venture that Hellmann was the author of not one, but two, invaluable handbooks. Yes, the second one does appear to be the shape of a jar of mayonnaise.