Born on the Strip: How Eugenia Duke Created a Southern Condiment Empire
May 25, 2026
In the world of Southern cuisine, few arguments spark as much fierce loyalty as the debate over what goes into a tomato sandwich, potato salad, or deviled eggs. But across the Carolinas and the broader Southeast, one name reigns supreme: Duke’s Mayonnaise.
While the iconic yellow-capped jars are a staple in supermarkets today, the global condiment empire actually began just down the road as a modest, one-woman home kitchen operation during the height of the First World War.
The Dime Sandwich That Started It All
The story of Duke’s begins in 1917. Eugenia Duke, a 36-year-old Greenville resident and mother, was looking for a way to generate extra income for her family while supporting the war effort. With thousands of young soldiers stationed nearby at Camp Sevier—a National Guard training facility—Eugenia hit on a simple idea: selling homemade sandwiches to the army canteens for a dime apiece.
Slathering her homemade pimento cheese, egg salad, and chicken salad onto fresh bread, Eugenia’s sandwiches became an instant sensation among the troops. By 1919, she was remarkably selling over 10,000 sandwiches a day across the region.
As the war ended and soldiers returned home, Eugenia began receiving letters from across the country from veterans begging for her sandwich recipes—and more importantly, jars of the secret spread that gave them their flavor.
“It’s Got Twang!”: Bottling a Legend
Realizing that the true magic was in the condiment itself, Eugenia pivoted. In 1923, she began bottling her signature mayonnaise as a standalone product. At the urging of her top salesman, she set up her first commercial production line right along the Reedy River in Greenville’s West End, operating out of an old coach factory building known today as the Wyche Pavilion.
What set Eugenia’s recipe apart from commercial competitors—and what still sets it apart a century later—comes down to a distinct lack of sugar, a higher ratio of egg yolks, and a splash of apple cider vinegar. This unique formula gave the mayonnaise a tart, zesty punch that the company famously markets to this day as its signature “twang.”
Operating as a female entrepreneur and CEO in the 1920s, years before women even held the right to vote, Eugenia navigated a rapidly growing business that quickly outpaced what she could physically produce.
A Regional Icon Moves to Mauldin
In 1929, unable to keep up with the overwhelming regional demand, Eugenia made the strategic decision to sell her mayonnaise business and original recipe to the Virginia-based C.F. Sauer Company. She stayed on briefly as a spokesperson before moving to California to pursue other successful catering ventures.
Under the stewardship of C.F. Sauer, Duke’s grew from a beloved Upstate secret into the third-largest mayonnaise brand in the United States. To handle the massive volume, production eventually moved to a massive manufacturing facility located just a few miles down the road in Mauldin, South Carolina, where the facility now pumps out hundreds of thousands of jars a day using the exact, sugar-free formula Eugenia perfected in 1917.
Today, Eugenia Duke’s legacy is celebrated throughout Greenville, including the pedestrian bridge named in her honor over the Reedy River at Falls Park. From a 10-cent army canteen lunch to an indispensable part of Southern identity, Duke’s Mayonnaise remains a proud monument to Upstate ingenuity and bold flavor.
Are you a strict Duke’s loyalist? What is your go-to summer recipe that absolutely requires that signature “twang”? Tell us your thoughts or share your kitchen photos by tagging us on Instagram @goldenstripnews!
