Runny salad dressing

[MaggieL]

A few weeks ago, my sister fell in love with a salad dressing at the Moosewood restaurant in Ithaca, NY. Although Moosewood bottles and sells its dressings, they were sold out at the time and my sister had to leave empty-handed. Her birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and I've decided to include a bottle of this dressing as a gift -- however, instead of buying it, I will make it myself and include a recipe so that she can recreate it whenever she wants.

I found a recipe online, Moosewood House Dressing, and tried it this week -- but I couldn't get the consistency right. I'm willing to experiment as many times as necessary, but I'm hoping some guidance will speed up the process.

The finished product was very tasty, but had the consistency of heavy cream -- far too runny to adhere to the vegetables. I used cider vinegar and buttermilk.

A few specific questions:

1) I stopped the blender well-before the oil separated, and I'm wondering if the dressing would have continued to thicken if I'd have kept it on longer. Does this dressing only thicken through the incorporation of air?

2) Or, conversely, does the dressing thicken due to a chemical reaction between certain ingredients. Should I add more vinegar? Less oil?

3) I could only find 1% buttermilk. Could this be the problem?

I understand that it might be difficult to answer these questions without trying the recipe yourself. However, I'm asking anyway just in case there is an obvious answer. As an amateur cook, I'm sure I'm missing key points of common cooking knowledge.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[monavano]

A few weeks ago, my sister fell in love with a salad dressing at the Moosewood restaurant in Ithaca, NY.  Although Moosewood bottles and sells its dressings, they were sold out at the time and my sister had to leave empty-handed.  Her birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and I've decided to include a bottle of this dressing as a gift -- however, instead of buying it, I will make it myself and include a recipe so that she can recreate it whenever she wants.

I found a recipe online, Moosewood House Dressing, and tried it this week -- but I couldn't get the consistency right.  I'm willing to experiment as many times as necessary, but I'm hoping some guidance will speed up the process.

The finished product was very tasty, but had the consistency of heavy cream -- far too runny to adhere to the vegetables.  I used cider vinegar and buttermilk.

A few specific questions:

1)  I stopped the blender well-before the oil separated, and I'm wondering if the dressing would have continued to thicken if I'd have kept it on longer.  Does this dressing only thicken through the incorporation of air?

2)  Or, conversely, does the dressing thicken due to a chemical reaction between certain ingredients.  Should I add more vinegar?  Less oil?

3)  I could only find 1% buttermilk.  Could this be the problem?

I understand that it might be difficult to answer these questions without trying the recipe yourself.  However, I'm asking anyway just in case there is an obvious answer.  As an amateur cook, I'm sure I'm missing key points of common cooking knowledge.

Any help would be much appreciated.  Thanks.

←

OK, here goes a possible solution since the emulsification might not be as good as it could given thier method. And I believe that buttermilk is usually no more than 1% fat, so you're ok there. Reference from foodtv.com:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/articl...L-PRINT,00.html

I suggest you try blending all your ingredients except the oil and buttermilk. Slowly stream in the oil to get a nice emulsification. Lastly add the buttermilk until just blended and stop.

Hope this works!

BTW....I would recommend that this dressing stay refrigerated because it may spoil/ get contaminated at room temp. I could be wrong, but just a precaution.

Edited August 18, 2006 by monavano (log)

[LaurieB]

Try this nifty trick:

Put all ingredients, except the oil, into a food processor. Blend/puree them.

Then pour the oil into the feed tube on top of the processor. Continue to process the dressing -- the oil should drip through the tiny hole in the feed tube, thus causing your dressing to emulsify perfectly.

Most dressings should thicken up a bit more after being refrigerated.

Hope this helps,

Laurie

[Dave Hatfield]

Hummmm - mayonaise without egg yolks. Interesting.

I'd try using whole milk or better yet heavy cream (if you don't mind the butterfat) to get a thicker consistency.

Or you could just add an egg yolk at the begining, slowly drizzle in the oil & then the milk/buttermilk at the end. That would give you a flavored mayonaise which should thicken up nicely.

Good luck.

[BryanZ]

Or you could just use an old industrial trick and throw in some xanthan gum or other thickening hydrocolloid. That'll thicken your salad dressing up right quick.

[MaggieL]

Thanks for all of the helpful advice. For my next batch, I will add the oil slowly and see if that works. If not, then I will start playing with the ingredients. I think a heavier milk/cream would be worth trying--and since its a birthday present, it should be rich and delicious anyways.

Thanks again.