Category: Salad Dressings

Dip for Fruit

An alternative dessert is fruit and dip.  Nice on a buffet with more calorie rich offerings.  This works with berries, stone fruit and even melons.  

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 lb cream cheese (1 c soft cream cheese works too)
  • 2 c sour cream
  • 1 c brown sugar
  • dash of vanilla, almond extract, or rum extract

Directions:

  1. Beat the cream cheese until soft.
  2. Add sour cream
  3. Add brown sugar
  4. Add flavoring

Serves:  Makes 3 cups

Source:   I think the Girl Scouts

 

Oil and Vinegar Salad Dressing Recipe: A Basic Template

Because you need to know.

“This recipe is a template. All recipes are templates, but especially this one—a sort of “choose your own adventure” for the salad dressing set.

That’s because what oil and vinegar dressing is when you get right down to it is a particular ratio of oil to vinegar. Which means you can take any oils or vinegars you have available, plug them into the template, and have it come out right.

The same goes for the seasonings—salt and pepper are essential (see the note below), but beyond that you can add a pinch of garlic powder, some dried parsley, whatever you have on hand. Just don’t overdo it, and keep it to two or three (not counting salt and pepper).

So, the ratio is three to one: three parts oil to one part vinegar. This formula will work 100 percent of the time, but that doesn’t mean it will be perfect100 percent of the time. It’s a rough guideline. You’ll have to tweak it to make it perfect. Not every vinegar is the same strength, for one thing. And of course, people’s tastes vary.

Making the dressing is a matter of combining the oil and vinegar, along with the seasonings and flavorings, and physically mixing them up to form a temporary emulsion. An incredibly efficient way to do this is to combine the ingredients in a glass jar, screw the lid on tightly and shake. (Save your pickle jars.)

What You’ll Need

  • 3/4 cup salad oil
  • 1/4cup white wine vinegar
  • Kosher salt and ground white pepper (or freshly ground black pepper), to taste

How to Make It

  1. Place all the ingredients in a glass jar.
  2. Tighten the lid.
  3. Shake vigorously for about 10 seconds or until fully combined.
  4. Let stand for 30 minutes at room temperature to let the flavors meld.
  5. Give the dressing a good whisk immediately before serving.

NOTES:

A teaspoon of honey or mustard will not only add flavor, it will also help stabilize the emulsion, so the dressing won’t separate as quickly. A squeeze of citrus, like lemon, lime orange (try blood orange sometime) is also a nice addition. Just be sure to taste and adjust as you go. A good way to taste is by dipping a piece of lettuce, rather than tasting the dressing on its own.
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper are the best. Those little boxes of ground pepper are 90 percent stale before you even get them home.
This recipe calls for salad oil, which means anything from safflower oil to canola oil to soybean oil. You could of course use something with a bit more of a distinctive flavor, such as walnut oil or avocado oil or olive oil. Grapeseed oil is lovely if you can afford it.
The same goes for your vinegars. White wine vinegar is perfectly adequate, and red wine vinegar is even nicer. Balsamic is terrific, and will take you in a whole different direction. The only thing you should stay entirely away from is plain distilled white vinegar, which is good for household cleaning but not so much for salad dressings.”
Other goodies can be added too: crumbled cheese, finely chopped hard boiled egg, soy sauce, maple syrup, and on and on ;and on!

Serves:  4 servings (2 oz each)
Source:  The Spruce, Danilo Alfaro

Magnifico Marinara Salad Dressing

This is a tasty tomato vinaigrette.  Good as a dip or marinade too.

Ingredients:

  • 2 c Marinara sauce (16 oz)
  • 1 c oil
  • 1/2 c red wine vinegar
  • 3 Tab brown  sugar
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp dry mustard
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions:

  1. Whisk together all ingredients.
  2. Mix well.
  3. Cover.
  4. Refrigerate until chilled.

Serves:   3 1/2 c

Source:  Hunt-Wesson

 

Sunnyside Steak Ranch Dressing

“In the 1950’s and 1960’s my family ate at the Sunnyside Steak Ranch in Sunnyside, CA. The restaurant closed years ago. They made wonderful steak sandwiches on sourdough bread, had pots of picked vegetables on every table to snack on, and they made an incredible salad. Very simple. Whole romaine leaves with the best house dressing I’ve ever tasted. Some kind of vinaigrette. I would love to have that house dressing recipe. If anyone can help, thanks.”

“Oh my gosh!! My parents used to take my three sisters and me to the Sunnyside Steak Ranch during the early 1960s (we lived about a mile away) and the dressing was awesome! I remember it being a tannish color, and sort of creamy. The restaurant used to sell it in quart jars and we would dunk whole romaine leaves in the jar and eat them as a snack. I would also love this recipe.”

And here it is!  Mary lived in Bonita and went to the restaurant with her family too.

Ingredients:

  • 13 oz blue cheese
  • 2 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp dry mustard
  • 2 tsp MSG (optional these days)
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 3 tsp paprika
  • 1 qt (4 c) mayonaise
  • 1 c wine vinegar
  • 1 qt (4 c) oil  (not 1/3 of large recipe??)

Directions:

BE SURE ALL INGREDIENTS ARE ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE MIXING.  DO NOT TAKE THINGS FROM FRIDG, AND  IMMEDIATELY MIX.

  1. Put cheese, condiments, mayonnaise in mixer bowl.
  2. Mix until smooth.
  3. Warm oil in another pan on stove until just warm.  Do not even simmer, jut slightly warm.  (This is the trick of mixing so it will not separate.)
  4. Add oil, a little at a time and slowly to the cheese mix.
  5. Last of all, add vinegar, very slowly using low speed on mixer and scraping sides of bowl.

Sis says, put condiments in mayonnaise, add to completely cheese that has been melted in oven and then add vinegar.  Use wire beater instead of mix-master and use Wesson oil and Kraft Mayonnaise only.  Add vinegar, then oil.

Serves: 3/4 gal

Large Quanity:

  • 1/2 wheel Roquefort cheese
  • 1 1/2 oz black pepper
  • 2 oz dry mustard
  • 2 1/2 oz MSG
  • 3 1/4 oz salt
  • 1 1/2 oz garlic powder
  • 2 1/4 oz paprika
  • 3 qt mayanaise
  • 1 1/2 pt wine vinegar
  • 7 qt salad oil

Serves:    A whole lot!

Source:  Mary Oswell

The Proud Bird Restaurant’s Honey Mustard Dressing

This restaurant that sits across from two runways at Los Angeles International Airport was a favorite white tablecloth/steakhouse lunch spot since 1967.  It closed for almost a year and  in June 2016 it was replaced by a revamped food bazaar with open space and a host of new food offerings, a concept akin to Los Angeles’ Grand Central Market.  No word if this favorite dressing was still available.  It also shows up as being from Pet Hirshburner, of the Queen Mary Restaurants circa 1970.  It is the house dressing of The Specialty Restaurant Corp.

Ingredients:

  • 3 c mayonnaise
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 1/2 c honey
  • 1/4 c prepared mustard
  • 1/4 c white vinegar
  • 1/4 onion, minced
  • 1/4 bunch parsley, chopped
  • 1 c vegetable oil

Directions:

  1.  Combine the mayonnaise, sugar, honey, mustard, vinegar, onion and parsley.
  2. Blend in oil.
  3. Chill about 1 hour before serving.

Serves:  Makes about 6 cups

Source: “Thirty Years of Recipe Requests to the Los Angeles Times” by Rose Dosti (Times Mirror, 1994).

 

 

Buttermilk Dressing

This dressing can be made quickly in a jar.  I have frozen butter milk, but it become very thin. There is also powdered buttermilk in the store.  Fresh works best.

Ingredients: 

  • 1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken
  • 1/3 cup mayonnaise (this is more than is in the original, to thicken the dressing further)
  • 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped red onion

Directions:

Mix the dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid, with a good pinch of salt and black pepper.

Serves:  Makes about one cup, enough for six cups of slaw

Source:  Smitten Kitchen

Sweet Salad Dressing

I use this on spinach salad.  I also use it as a marinade the macaroni when I make a pasta salad.  It is very much like the old Milani 1890 French Dressing.

 Ingredients:

  • 1 c oil
  • 1/4 c vinegar
  • 1/3 c ketchup
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 1/2 onion, grated (or dried onions)
  • dash of salt
  • shake of Worcestershire Sauce

Directions:

Mix and chill.

Serves: About 2 cups

Source:   Pat Negus

Green Goddess Dressing, But Not the Original

Salad dressing frequently make good dips.  This one goes nicely with chicken or shrimp and especially artichokes..

Ingredients:

  • 8 to 10 Anchovy fillets [see notes]
  • 1 Green onion
  • ¼ c Parsley
  • 2 T minced fresh tarragon or 1T dried tarragon
  • ¼ c Chives, chopped
  • 3 c Mayonnaise [see notes]
  • ¼ c Tarragon Vinegar

Instructions:

  1. Chop together the anchovies and green onion until finely minced.
  2. Add parsley, tarragon and chives, and mix lightly
  3. Turn into a bowl and stir in mayonnaise and vinegar.

Serves: Makes 1 quart

Notes:

  • You can use a food processor for the dressing.
  • I use 2 cups mayonnaise and 2 cups sour cream.
  • I use anchovy paste instead of chopping little dead fish.
  • If it doesn’t look green, add a little food coloring.

Source: Sunset Cook Book, 1960