Summer is built for salads and what is a salad without a delicious salad dressing? Well, it’s just a bowl of lettuce and some vegetables I suppose.
Salad dressings are cheap and easy to buy. There’s a whole aisle of them at the grocery store. But they are even cheaper to make at home. What you’ll notice is that store-bought dressings will have things like xanthan gum, potassium sorbate, and calcium disodium EDTA.
Xanthan gum acts as a stabilizer and thickener. It helps prevent the oil and vinegar in the dressing from separating. Potassium sorbate and calcium disodium EDTA are both used as preservatives. Interestingly enough calcium disodium EDTA is also used to treat lead poisoning.
In all honesty, as far as we know these additives are completely harmless. However, given the choice between food with a bunch of preservatives in it, and food with none, I pick none every day of the week.
Basic Salad Dressing
Making your own salad dressing can be as simple as mixing a bit of oil and vinegar together. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Even the more complicated sounding dressings are only complicated in theory. For example, when you think about creating an unnatural bond between oil and vinegar molecules by using a binder and mechanical agitation, it can boggle the mind. Especially when you get down to how this emulsion of two incompatible molecules is so tenuous that it could easily break if even slightly overpowered.
All that really means is that oil and vinegar is slowly whisked together with a little bit of mustard or egg yolk to hold the bond together. That’s it.
Basic process
The basic process for making a vinaigrette goes like this.
- Combine vinegar with binder and flavourings.
- Slowly whisk a few drops of oil into the vinegar mixture.
- Slowly whisk a few more drops of oil into the vinegar mixture.
- In a slow steady stream whisk the remaining oil into the vinegar mixture.
- Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper and serve.
That’s it.
Common Mistakes
The biggest mistake I see and hear about is that people combine all of the oil and vinegar all at once and then try to whisk it together. This will not hold a bond. It may come together briefly, especially if you are using a blender. But, if you build your vinaigrette slowly and properly it will hold together for much, much longer.
When I saw the vinaigrette will break or separate all I mean is that the oil will float to the top and the vinegar will sink to the bottom creating to very distinct layers. A well-made vinaigrette will have no clear difference between the oil and vinegar because they are literally joined as one at the molecular level.
Ratios
The ratio of vinegar to oil in a vinaigrette is really important. If too much oil is added, the bond will be over powered and will break. It not enough oil is added the vinaigrette won’t be viscous enough and won’t coat your salad.
Generally, a ratio of one part vinegar to three parts oil is suggested. However, a ratio of one part vinegar to four parts oil is also possible. Though it may seem counterintuitive, the more oil that is added to the vinaigrette the thicker it will be. So, if you want a really thick vinaigrette use four parts oil to one part vinegar. For a more fluid consistency use three parts oil to one part vinegar.
- 1/4 cup Vinegar
- 3/4 cup Oil
- Yield = 1 cup of standard vinaigrette
- 2 tbsp Vinegar
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp Oil
- Yield + 1 cup of thick vinaigrette
Equipment
- Whisk
- Mixing Bowl
- Jar with lid
- Measuring Cups
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
- 3/4 cup Canola Oil
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 2 tsp Honey
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine the Vinegar, mustard and honey in the mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Whisk a few drops of the oil in the vinegar mixture.
- Whisk a few more drops of the oil into the vinegar mixture.
- Add the remaining oil in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking.
- Once all the oil has been incorporated, season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.
Other types of salad dressing
This post is about salad dressing not just vinaigrette but I’ve mostly just been talking about vinaigrette. The reason for this is that the process for making a vinaigrette is the same for making an egg-based dressing or mayonnaise. The only difference is that the mustard is replaced with egg yolk.
The recipe above could easily be used to make Caesar dressing for example if the mustard is replaced with one egg yolk (the mustard can be used along with the egg yolk as well). Additionally, two cloves of garlic, a few anchovies or Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese would be added. But the basic recipe is identical.
Changing the recipe
That basic recipe can be used to make hundreds if not thousands of salad dressings that are all built on the same process but flavoured differently. Don’t believe me?
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
- 3/4 cup Canola Oil
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 2 tbsp Maple Syrup
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine the vinegar, mustard, and maple syrup in the mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Whisk a few drops of the oil in the vinegar mixture.
- Whisk a few more drops of the oil into the vinegar mixture.
- Add the remaining oil in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking.
- Once all the oil has been incorporated, season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Raspberry Vinegar
- 3/4 cup Canola Oil
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 2 tsp Honey
- 2 tbsp crushed fresh raspberries
Instructions
- Combine the Vinegar, mustard, honey, and rasperries in the mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Whisk a few drops of the oil in the vinegar mixture.
- Whisk a few more drops of the oil into the vinegar mixture.
- Add the remaining oil in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking.
- Once all the oil has been incorporated, season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup White Wine Vinegar
- 3/4 cup Canola Oil
- 2 tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 2 tbsp Honey
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine the Vinegar, mustard, and honey in the mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Whisk a few drops of the oil in the vinegar mixture.
- Whisk a few more drops of the oil into the vinegar mixture.
- Add the remaining oil in a slow, steady stream while constantly whisking.
- Once all the oil has been incorporated, season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
- 3/4 cup Canola Oil
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 ea Egg Yolk
- 5-6 drops Fish Sauce or Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
- 2 cloves of pureed garlic
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients except the oil in the mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Whisk a few drops of the oil in the vinegar mixture.
- Whisk a few more drops of the oil into the vinegar mixture.
- Add the remaining oil in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking.
- Once all the oil has been incorporated, season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
- 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
- 3/4 cup Canola Oil
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 clove pureed garlic
- 2 tbsp chopped chives
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine the Vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, and honey in the mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Whisk a few drops of the oil in the vinegar mixture.
- Whisk a few more drops of the oil into the vinegar mixture.
- Add the remaining oil in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking.
- Once all the oil has been incorporated, season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper and add in the chive.
Conclusion
Hopefully, now you are starting to notice that even though all of those recipes will taste very different, they are all pretty much the same. It’s just knowing that basic formula and then adding and changing things to make it something different.
There is no end to the changes you can make and the different dressings you can create. Master this basic salad dressing and then the world is your oyster.
I’d love to hear about the salad dressings you come up with. Leave it in the comments or hit me up on social media.
Thanks for reading!
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