The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 958

and a pool of vinegar at the bottom of the salad bowl An emulsified vinaigrette, on the other hand, uses the power of surfactants to help both the oil and the vinegar cling tightly to the leaves, giving you balanced flavor in every mouthful OBSESSIVE-EMULSIVE W hat about the ratio of oil to vinegar? I tried various ratios, everywhere from 1:4 to 4:1 oil to vinegar In the end, the classic French recipe of three parts oil to one part vinegar proved to form the strongest, most stable emulsion with a nice, viscous, leaf-coating consistency In some cases, I found the amount of vinegar a little too aggressive But you can easily replace some of the vinegar with water to tone it down—or, if you want to bring a bit of a meaty bite to your salad (I often do), replace part of it with soy sauce As for the best emulsifier for the job, mustard is the most common surfactant, and it works best when you have at least teaspoon per tablespoon of vinegar (you can add more if you’d like) Mayonnaise works even better, easily forming a creamy sauce, though it lacks the pleasant tang of mustard For a sweeter dressing (say, on a beet salad or an asparagus salad), honey also works very well Try adding honey and toasted crushed nuts to a basic vinaigrette It rocks in more ways than one As for mixing, some advocate slowly whisking in the oil Others shake it up in a jam jar Still others insist on the blender Well, after testing, I found that, not surprisingly, a blender will give you the tightest emulsion, though it can cause your olive oil to turn extremely bitter (see “The Bitter Blend,” here) while the shake-it-in-a-jar version will be the weakest, lasting for only 30 minutes or so But the truth of the matter is, your vinaigrette only needs to stay stable for the length of time it takes you to eat a salad I put the ingredients for my vinaigrette into a 1pint squeeze bottle in the fridge and shake it up right before I use it Or, as is more often the case, I take it out of the fridge and realize that, once again, my wife has finished off all but the last drop, forcing me ... oil to turn extremely bitter (see ? ?The Bitter Blend,” here) while the shake-it-in-a-jar version will be the weakest, lasting for only 30 minutes or so But the truth of the matter is, your vinaigrette... slowly whisking in the oil Others shake it up in a jam jar Still others insist on the blender Well, after testing, I found that, not surprisingly, a blender will give you the tightest emulsion,... part of it with soy sauce As for the best emulsifier for the job, mustard is the most common surfactant, and it works best when you have at least teaspoon per tablespoon of vinegar (you can add more if you’d