Vinaigrette Dressing

[Cooking Cop]

I just made a vinegarett dressing and it was AWFUL. I used extra vigin olive oil, regular vinegar, a little onion, dijon mustard, and salt & pepper. The ratio was 1 part vinegar to 4 parts oil.

Any clues what went wrong? It was way too tart. Should I not use EVOO?

Help!

 

[AllenOK]

Odds are it was the vinegar. Try a Red Wine vinegar, or a White Wine vinegar. They're a little sweeter, and smoother, than that harsh distilled vinegar.

 

[Katie H]

Cooking Cop, I never use regular white distilled or cider vinegar in my vinaigrettes. It's usually some type of wine vinegar.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I use all kinds of vinegars for vinaigrettes including sherry and champagne vinegar.If your vinaigrette is too harsh try adding some orange juice or a pinch or two of sugar to tone it down works good on the simple ones.

 

[kitchenelf]

You also want 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil, not 4. I think cider vinegar will work just fine but try red wine vinegar, balsamic, or even just fresh lemon juice (or a combo of lemon and red wine vinegar).

Also, I would forget the onion and use finely minced garlic. A very basic vinaigrette would be:

1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or balsamic or sherry vinegar or champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar, which is different that white vinegar)
1 TBS Dijon mustard
1 clove of garlic finely minced
pinch of kosher salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 cup olive oil to 3/4 cup olive oil (taste after 1/2 cup)

Put your vinegar, mustard, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl and whisk. Once everything is blended SLOWLY drizzle in your olive oil in a VERY thin stream. You may even need someone to hold the bowl for you. By doing the olive oil in a thin stream your vinaigrette will emulsify and start to thicken. As you go along you can add the olive oil faster but make sure you keep whisking to incorporate the oil at all times.

Taste after you have added maybe 1/2 cup of the olive oil. If it is still too tart add the rest of the oil, whisking the remainder of the time.

 

[velochic]

KitchenElf has a great recipe. The only thing I would do different (sorry!) is to use shallot instead of garlic. Raw garlic can be rather harsh, but shallot will give you a nice oniony/garlicky flavor without the harshness.

 

[DramaQueen]

I have never used onion or shallots in a vinegraitte salad dressing. I use garlic with a good grade olive oil, red wine, or champagne vinegar, Dijon mustard, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and it is wonderful!!! I don't know what kind of vinegar the original poster used because I don't know what she means by "regular" vinegar.

 

[Andy M.]

You can do kitchenelf's recipe in the blender as well. Blend all the ingredients except the oil then drizzle the oil into the blender while it's running.

 

[gourmande]

Since a basic vinaigrette is so simple to make, and best fresh (IMO), I usually make just enough for my immediate needs and prepare it at the last minute.

In the bottom of my salad bowl I whisk together white wine vinegar and Dijon mustard (approx. 4:1 ratio), add in a pinch of coarse salt and fresh ground pepper, then I whisk in the olive oil in a slow steady stream until it has reached the taste and consistency I like, which is usually 2 or 3 parts oil, to 1 part acid (I prefer my vinaigrette on the tart side.) BTW, setting your bowl on a cloth will help keep the bowl steady as you whisk with one hand and drizzle in the oil with the other

To taste-test I dip a leaf green in the vinaigrette as this gives a better idea of how the salad with taste, then I adjust seasoning or the oil acid ratio if needed. When adding herbs I do so at the end.

Naturally, the quality of the ingredients will greatly affect the results. I know this sounds obvious but in a simple vinaigrette where you are basically showcasing 2 ingredients, the quality of the oil and vinegar can be the difference between "yuck", "it's good" and "wow!"

G

*edited for clarity

 

[jennyema]

You can make K-elf's recipe in a jar, too. Just shake it up. The mustard helps emulsify it.

Since you thought your 4:1 ratio was too tart, I would recommend switching to a wine or sherry vinegar and leaving your oil to vinegar ratio at 4:1. 3:1 would make it even more acidic. Plus, you can always add more vinegar.

A pinch of sugar does help tome down the acid.

It's really a very easy thing to make once you get thet hang of it, so keep trying!

 

[velochic]

I have never used onion or shallots in a vinegraitte salad dressing. I use garlic with a good grade olive oil, red wine, or champagne vinegar, Dijon mustard, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper and it is wonderful!!! I don't know what kind of vinegar the original poster used because I don't know what she means by "regular" vinegar.

In Turkey, where dh is from, his sister makes a nice vinaigrette with just olive oil, lemon juice, some minced shallot, salt and pepper. It is so simple, yet so delicious!! I've used shallot in my vinaigrettes since learning it from her and I have to say I definitely prefer the taste.

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

Okay, I'm going to offer a different opinion.

Many many many many people recommend that you use "Extra Virgin Olive Oil" for vinaigrettes... I myself do not. Olives have a definite flavor of their own - one that I absolutely love - but not in mnost dressings.

As many restaurants and fine chefs do, I use a neutral flavored oil in the majority of my vinaigrettes. Canola happens to be my workhorse. It is delicate enough to let the flavors of the other ingredients come through, and doesn't clash with it's own flavors.

Here is my run-o-the-mill vinaigrette.

2-T White Wine Vinegar (I use Red for heartier salads)
1-T Finely Minced Shallot
1-T Minced Chives
1-t Minced Tarragon
1-t Minced Flat Leaf Parsley
2-t Dijon Mustard
Good Pinch of Salt ("Pickling Salt" dissolves easiest)
Good Pinch of Sugar (Balance of Salt/Sweet/Acid is important)
Freshly Ground Black Pepper - To Taste
5-T Canola Oil (Sometimes 6, Depends on strength of the Mustard)

Put it all in a small lidded jar or a screw-top ziplock container and shake vigorously until the liquids emulsify. Let it sit for 15-20min for the flavors to spread/develop then shake again before use.

The trickiest part to a fantastic vinaigrette is getting the correct balance of salt and sugar. Make a practice batch and slowly add more and more salt tasting between each addition until it gets over salted. Then you'll know where the fine line of fantastic lies.

Anyhoo... try using a neutral oil like canola. The herbs I commonly use above are of course optional, but add some interesting complexity - be careful of the tarragon though, it can be overpowering.

 

[CassieKate]

I bet you it was the onion. Was it a white or yellow one? Those are strong. I would use a shallot which is the milder onion or use a clove or two of garlic instead. I usually use champagne, white wine or apple cider vinegar but white is fine too.

 

[jennyema]

Okay, I'm going to offer a different opinion.

Many many many many people recommend that you use "Extra Virgin Olive Oil" for vinaigrettes... I myself do not. Olives have a definite flavor of their own - one that I absolutely love - but not in mnost dressings.

As many restaurants and fine chefs do, I use a neutral flavored oil in the majority of my vinaigrettes. Canola happens to be my workhorse. It is delicate enough to let the flavors of the other ingredients come through, and doesn't clash with it's own flavors.

Here is my run-o-the-mill vinaigrette.

2-T White Wine Vinegar (I use Red for heartier salads)
1-T Finely Minced Shallot
1-T Minced Chives
1-t Minced Tarragon
1-t Minced Flat Leaf Parsley
2-t Dijon Mustard
Good Pinch of Salt ("Pickling Salt" dissolves easiest)
Good Pinch of Sugar (Balance of Salt/Sweet/Acid is important)
Freshly Ground Black Pepper - To Taste
5-T Canola Oil (Sometimes 6, Depends on strength of the Mustard)

Put it all in a small lidded jar or a screw-top ziplock container and shake vigorously until the liquids emulsify. Let it sit for 15-20min for the flavors to spread/develop then shake again before use.

The trickiest part to a fantastic vinaigrette is getting the correct balance of salt and sugar. Make a practice batch and slowly add more and more salt tasting between each addition until it gets over salted. Then you'll know where the fine line of fantastic lies.

Anyhoo... try using a neutral oil like canola. The herbs I commonly use above are of course optional, but add some interesting complexity - be careful of the tarragon though, it can be overpowering. [/quote]

I think it's an individual palate thing.

I pretty much only use a flavorful extra virgin olive oil for vinaigrette dressing -- because of its assertive taste. The best part about a vinaigrette is the olive oil, IMO. And good vinegar. All else is superfluous (most of the time).

I personally don't care for loads of herbs in my vinaigrette. But still, I think an assertive oil is perfect with them, unless you really are aiming at making the herbs the focal point instead of a back note.

I might use canola oil or grapeseed oil for a salad dressing but not a simple vinaigrette.

Everything else you say I totally agree with, particularly the importance of the sugar and salt and their balance. Vinaigrette without them will taste flat and harsh.

I would suggest experimenting with different oils and vinegars -- just don't use white vinegar.

 

[ironchef]

Besides the vinegar and the onion, the EVOO could have also contributed. Lower quality oils can take on a bitter quality when added to certain ingredients, like those with a high acidic content. Without knowing what brand you used, that combined with the onion and vinegar would've given your dressing a very strong acidic/bitter taste.

With that being said, a vinaigrette is supposed to be acidic. Without tasting it, it's hard to say because what you may consider too acidic, I may consider right on. It's hard for me to picture a vinaigrette that has a 4:1 ratio of fat to acid as being too acidic, especially one that incorporated a strong flavored oil like EVOO.

But again, going back to what the others have said, what type of vinegar did you use? If you're going to make homemade vinaigrettes, then the big three that you should have stocked are balsamic, sherry, and red wine vinegar.

If you didn't use distilled vinegar, and by "regular" you meant white wine vinegar, then I would say it's your perception of what is and isn't too acidic.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I dont usually use EVOO in my vinaigrettes I prefer light or extra light olive oil its not light of calories its called light because it doesnt have the heavy flovor of EVOO.Its lighter in flavor.

 

[kitchenelf]

velochic - I almost mentioned shallots as I have used them too!!! Good suggestion.

IC - I really think the OP meant white vinegar, not white wine vinegar, which would REALLY not taste very good, IMHO.

Also, a lot of times I will use a light olive oil so there is not that strong olive oil flavor in there.

 

[ironchef]

IC - I really think the OP meant white vinegar, not white wine vinegar, which would REALLY not taste very good, IMHO.

Hopefully he'll clarify it for us. But I'm curious as to why you'd feel that white wine vinegar would taste worse than distilled white vinegar? The former is lower in acidity than the latter so it would be less harsh on the palate.

 

[Katie H]

Interesting, ironchef, at how we interpret things. In Alix's post about the white wine vinegar and the white vinegar, I took her to mean the white vinegar was harsher. I just removed the part of the post that was enclosed in commas "white wine vinegar" and read the rest as a complete sentence.

So what I think she was saying was: "I really think the OP meant white vinegar, which would REALLY not taste very good, IMHO."

I could be wrong, though. Just my take.

 

[kitchenelf]

Very interesting how we can interpret things! LOL The WHITE vinegar would be VERY harsh, not the white WINE vinegar. The white wine vinegar would have been much better.