Bottled Salad Dressing

[bleachboy]

I was watching what is undoubtedly Food TV's finest offering, "Unwrapped" tonight, and what I believe was a representative of Hidden Valley Ranch or something offered an astonishing statistic.

98% of American households have bottled salad dressing in their refrigerator.

The average American household refrigerator, in fact, contains eight different varieties of bottled salad dressing.

WTF?! Is this for real? Are they counting mayonnaise as a bottled salad dressing or what?

I love snooping in others' iceboxes, and I will agree that most I have seen contain some form of bottled salad dressing. So the 98% ... well, it might be close, anyway. But eight different bottles?!

So quick. Go to your refrigerator. Count the number of bottles and varieties. Report your results. Feel free to name specific varieties, if you like.

I sort of sometimes have a weakness for "French" dressing of the red/orange variety. But only infrequently. Fake bacon bits sometimes enter into that equation as well.

As for myself, I have zero bottles of "salad dressing" in my fridge. But if you're counting "things that could be salad dressing ingredients," I probably have about 18.

[tanabutler]

I have not yet forgiven Trader Joe's for discontinuing the best salad dressing I've ever had (Vidalia Onion Vinaigrette). I've been seeking something similar ever since, and have tried a lot of new dressings in my quest. So I have too many bottles in there, none of which flip my skirt like the TJVOV.

There are:

Ranch

Brianna's Lemon Tarragon

Annie's Goddess

Annie's Shiitake-Sesame

Cardini's Lime Dill (not for salads, but I use it in potato salads)

TJ's Creamy Basil

Carrot Ginger (a mistake)

Roasted Sweet Pepper and Garlic V.

Bleu Cheese and Pecan Balsamic V.

Olivier Meyer Lemon Cracked Peppercorn V.

Sesame Miso (another mistake)

I have a slight fascination with condiments. But I would give half these away; they aren't what I expected and not what I want.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I have and have had no bottled salad dressings in my refrigerator for a few years now. I always opt to make my own and the one I am making these days is an olive oil/wine vinaigrette with fresh garlic and parsley, etc ... can't bring myself to put anything heavy on a salad during these hot, sticky summer days. Somehow, bottled seems to heavily preservative laden for my tastes. And no thousand island or sweet french gluey anything .. ever!

[FL Heat]

Ken's SteakHouse Blue Cheese. For when the wings place doesn't give us enough to go with our take-out hotwings :) And, um. . .oh, there's another bottle of Ken's Steak House Blue Cheese in the pantry. Must have been buy-one-get-one-free.

Otherwise, it's "Fun With Vinegars, Oils, and Herbs" for dressings.

Diana

[fifi]

I have 3.

Hidden Valley Ranch... It is a must have. I love Ranch dressing and this is the closest to what my mother used to make with the little foil packet, buttermilk, and Hellman's mayo (I think). Unfortunately, the bottle isn't quite the same and I haven't seen the little foil packs in a few years.

Wishbone Italian... Another pantry staple as it is a key ingredient in a coleslaw recipe, a chicken marinade, and a couple of other recipes I haven't made in a while. Good Season's Italian is the substitute if I can find it.

Some kind of Kraft vinagrette. Not very good. I have no idea where it came from. So, why don't I throw it out?

[bloviatrix]

There are 4 bottles in our refrigerator. Since I don't eat that crap I assume that Blovie has opened them all.

[Icicle]

I'm another ranch victim -- love it on pizza crusts!

[hjshorter]

Annie's Shiitake Sesame Vinaigrette

Newman's Own of some sort, maybe Olive Oil & Vinegar?

Jalapeno Ranch dressing, purchased at Whole Foods (Scott came home with this one day. It's unopened)

Naturally Fresh Blue Cheese

Whole Foods brand Lemon Tahini

[Toliver]

I have the keg o' Light Hidden Valley Ranch dressing from Costco. Ditto fifi's comments on Ranch.

I have Bernstein's Cheesey Fantastico (or something like that) that I intend to use as a salmon marinade (from a recipe a friend gave me) and Wishbone Italian, also used as a quick marinade.

Now where's the thread about bottles of barbecue sauce?

[Jinmyo]

Bottled salad dressings make as much sense to me as "Salad In A Jar".

[foodie52]

Mother's Cafe ( local ) Cashew Tamari Dressing. One of the BEST dressings on the planet, by the way. For years we begged the owner of this restaurant to bottle the stuff. This year, they finally did...

Other than that, nothing.

No guar gum or Xanthan gum in it. Is sold refrigerated.

[beans]

Garlic Expressions. Ever see it, buy it!! The treat are the whole cloves that tend to be mostlly at the bottom.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Bottled salad dressings make as much sense to me as "Salad In A Jar".

My thoughts exactly, Jinmyo!

What is the purpose of Thousand Island dressing anyway? Is there anything more sickly sweet and more noxious to obfuscate the delicate leaves of lettuce??

[Pickles]

I use EVOO and lemon juice. Don't do the bottle. So...ZERO.

[daniellewiley]

We usually make our own (fresh garlic, sea salt, capers, olives, sherry vinegar, olive oil), but we have:

- Maple Grove Farms Raspberry Vinaigrette (for grilled avocado cheese sandwiches)

- Kraft Catalina (for my sister-in-law who insists on drenching her salad in it despite the fact that I've already tossed the salad with homemade dressing)

- Whole Foods Organic Miso

- Whole Foods Organic Bleu Cheese (unopened, my husband bought it for an "emergency" - I'm still trying to figure out what kind of emergency we might encounter that will require bottled bleu cheese dressing)

- Garlic Expressions (brought over by my mother-in-law a few months ago)

[Gifted Gourmet]

But I always think that fresh garlic and fresh herbs sitting for ages in a bottle, under the weight of an oil and vinegar, must disintegrate to some extent ... no??

[beans]

No. The garlic cloves are crispy like pickled garlic.

[bleachboy]

But I always think that fresh garlic and fresh herbs sitting for ages in a bottle, under the weight of an oil and vinegar, must disintegrate to some extent ... no??

It might just make the vinaigrette taste great though, like an infused oil or whatnot.

[NulloModo]

I don't have any around that I use for salads, but I do keep a bottle of russian, blue cheese, and ranch around for quick dipping sauces for wings and things like that.

[Susan in FL]

We sometimes make our own dressing, but most often, rather than make a salad dressing separately, I take the free-hand route... drizzle EVOO and vinegar on a bowl of salad and toss it. Usually if I make a dressing, it's a special salad recipe.

We do have three store-bought bottles of dressing in the fridge now, though they might not be edible. We keep some on hand for when we're expecting our kids to visit. They really like ranch. We have some "Just Too Good" from when we were calorie counting. And, there's a bottle of blue cheese in there that we must have used to dip celery in once with Buffalo wings. That is the one that has probably turned into a science project. I know I have made blue cheese dressing several times since that was opened.

[tommy]

i've got 1. maybe 3. i rarely use them. in fact, i'd say never. they're for guests who might want them. and because i grew up with them, i don't find i'm terribly offended by their presence. or maybe i'm not offended by them because i just don't care enough to be bothered.

[Gifted Gourmet]

or maybe i'm not offended by them because i just don't care enough to be bothered.

a bit of fine EVOO and red wine vinegar to perk up your apathy, tommy?? Do you always have such violent emotions on these subjects?

[Moopheus]

No bottles. I like to make my own, in small quantities, so I can have a different one each time I make a salad. Lately I've been making some of the miso-based dressing recipes from The Book of Miso.

[Bux]

Bottled salad dressings make as much sense to me as "Salad In A Jar".

We try and keep twice as many jarred salads as we have bottled dressings. Wait a minute Jinmyo, I don't really buy that line of thinking. If you count all sorts of pickled vegetables as salad, "salad in a jar makes far more sense than dressing in a bottle.

Anyway, sometimes Mrs. B puts the leftover vinaigrette in a jar to shake up and reuse if we're lazy the next day. Whenever the mustard jar has been scraped as clean as I can scrape it, Mrs. B will make salad dressing in the jar by shaking up some oil and vinegar. There is the chance I can go to the refrigerator and find a vinaigrette in a jar, which is close enough to a bottle. Manufactured dressings, not likely. We usually have one good extra virgin olive oil for salad and an olive oil for cooking open. We usually have a few vinegars open. You could think of this as deconstructed salad dressing in bottles.

[FistFullaRoux]

Hidden Valley Ranch... It is a must have. I love Ranch dressing and this is the closest to what my mother used to make with the little foil packet, buttermilk, and Hellman's mayo (I think). Unfortunately, the bottle isn't quite the same and I haven't seen the little foil packs in a few years.

They do still make the dry Ranch packages, although you usually don't find them in the salad dressing aisle. Try the spice aisle, and I've even seen it in the chips/snack aisle. My wife makes a party dip with the stuff.

Myself, I got Thousand Island (try it on a burger and find out what the Big Mac secret sauce is), a fat free Italian, and Newman's Own Ceaser dressing (because I am a lazy sort, and my wife does not like Ceaser. It's virtually impossible to make salad dressing for 1). If we are counting the expired ones that need to be thrown away, add 2 to my list.