Kenji mixes a salad with his hands. Credit: Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
If you search “Kenji vinaigrette” on Serious Eats, you’ll find this recipe and this one which are very close to our rendition of the Jacques Pepin formula. And as an experienced garde manger, you may well ask “who needs a recipe for vinaigrette anyway?”
Well, this week the occasionally impish food scientist took the gloves off with this recipe, which is titled once again “Simple Vinaigrette” but contains a lot of useful bonus content. Here are some highlights:
You always want a 3:1 ratio of oil to other liquid, but that liquid doesn’t have to be vinegar. For ¾ c oil, he uses 3 T vinegar and 1 T water.
A nicely emulsified vinaigrette. Credit: Credit: Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
You need mustard or another emulsifier to make a stable mix of oil and vinegar that doesn’t break apart. Other emulsifiers might include honey, mayo or a nice raw egg yolk.
Kenji drizzles his oil to a big bowl and whisks it prior to adding the vinegar. This breaks big drops into smaller ones that will emulsify more easily. Do the same in a blender or mini-chop? He advises against it if you’re using extra virgin olive oil because he says the activity causes the oil to oxidize and become bitter.
Finally, he wants you to obsessively wash and dry your lettuce and then mix your salad with your hands. I assume he disapproves of those of us who buy prewashed micro-greens.
Note: in other versions of the recipe Kenji simply mixes it in a jar. A lot simpler but less photogenic.
Kenji and his his endless reinvention of the wheel. Surprised reverse sear wasn’t used.
If you look at the links to the three recipes on Serious Eats you’ll see a bit of inconsistency. Measure the dressing vs add ingredients to taste; drizzle it on vs mixing beforehand, Got to watch your suspenders around this guy.
A former America Test Kitchen editor, Kenji may vary his methods often to see if there is improvement.
I get comments about my dressings because I make my own vinegar with leftover wine / sake combined with apple cider vinegar in the Costco apple vinegar bottle — 2:1 ratio ( 2 apple cider to 1 wine)!
“metallic flavors”
Simple is better. Common sense and simple with a history of success.
Especially these days with increased cost – we are all trying to stretch the dollars and maximize our flavors.
Does the apple cider vinegar include the mother? I’ve always wanted to try mixing that in leftover wine.
We just closed up our cabin for the winter. My wife brought home some acv that was so old it turned into wine.
As we say in TX, that takes the rag off the bush. Your wife has some amazing powers.