Make the Perfect Vinaigrette

We expect a lot from oil and vinegar dressings, or vinaigrettes, as they're also called. Even the simplest one is asked to do nothing less than defy the laws of nature.

That's because oil and vinegar don't mix. No doubt you've seen this yourself — shake up a bottle of salad dressing and the two parts come together. But set the bottle down and in seconds they start to separate again, until all the oil is at the top and all the vinegar is at the bottom.

The best we can do is encourage them to come together for a little while, which they will grudgingly do, provided we shake, stir or otherwise mix them up really well.

We call that a temporary emulsion — temporary because the oil and vinegar begin to separate as soon as you stop mixing, stirring or whatever. (An example of a permanent emulsion, by the way, is mayonnaise, but that's another story.) Here are a few tips and tricks to help your vinaigrettes turn out perfectly every time.

If you remember nothing else about vinaigrettes, remember this: the magic ratio of oil to vinegar is 3 to 1. As long as you know that, you won't need to consult a vinaigrette recipe ever again. Just remember three parts oil to one part vinegar and you'll be all right. If you get them backwards and do three parts vinegar to one part oil, your puckered mouth will ensure you don't make that mistake a second time.

So, is this 3:1 ratio set in stone? Yes! OK, actually, it's not. Different vinegars have different strengths, so the ratio might need to be adjusted somewhat. You also might want a more tart dressing sometimes, and other times something a little milder. For the most part, though, the 3:1 ratio represents the vinaigrette sweet spot. Get it somewhere in the vicinity and you're going to do just fine.

By the way, the best way to test the flavor of your vinaigrette is to dip a piece of lettuce in, shake off the excess and then take a bite. This will give you a better sense of how your salad will taste than by tasting the vinaigrette "straight."

Generally speaking, any oils labeled "vegetable oil" or "salad oil" are fine for making a basic vinaigrette. You could also use any light, neutral-flavored oil like safflower, canola or soybean oil. One of the most common variations is to substitute olive oil for salad oil. If you do this, make sure you use extra virgin olive oil, not the cheaper, "light" varieties. When you consider the wide range of flavored oils that are available today, including such distinctive oils as walnut or avocado, the possible variations on the basic vinaigrette formula are literally endless. The most neutral flavored vinegar is white vinegar, but we wouldn't likely use this in a vinaigrette. At the very least, use a white wine vinegar. But the flavors and types of specialty vinegars, like balsamic, sherry or raspberry, are as varied and diverse as can be. Cider vinegar is made from apples and is a good choice for fruity vinaigrettes. Balsamic vinegar, sweet, dark and aged in specially treated wooden casks, is one of the most sublime vinegars you can find. Another interesting choice, especially for Asian-flavored vinaigrettes, is rice vinegar, which is made from fermented rice. Lemon juice is a nice component to add to vinaigrettes. It's usually used to complement and enhance the vinegar, rather than replacing it altogether — although a simple dressing of olive oil and lemon juice drizzled over a fresh summer salad is hard to beat.

For that matter, you can use all kinds of juices in vinaigrettes, not just lemon — though citrus fruits such as lemon, lime and orange juice are used most commonly because of their high acid content. Orange juice adds sweetness in addition to tartness. Each citrus fruit has its own unique flavor profile, but the overall vinaigrette formula is the same.

A simple vinaigrette doesn't need more seasoning than a bit of Kosher salt and ground white pepper. But minced garlic, onion, shallot and herbs (fresh and dried) are often part of the mix, along with spices such as black pepper, celery seed, paprika and so on. Other ingredients, such as mustard or Worcestershire sauce, are not uncommon.

Honey happens to be a great addition to a vinaigrette, firstly because it adds sweetness, which is nice sometimes to counterbalance the tartness from your vinegar, citrus or whatever. But also because it helps stabilize the emulsion. A vinaigrette with honey in it will remain emulsified for a long time — certainly longer than it takes to eat a salad. Honey vinaigrettes are great for presentations, where you don't want the oil and vinegar separating all over the plate.

The most effective way of combining the oil and the vinegar is in a blender. If you don't have a blender, you can combine everything in a glass or stainless steel bowl and just whisk them together thoroughly. (Just don't use an aluminum bowl — the acid in the vinegar can react with the aluminum, producing a metallic flavor.) You could even seal the ingredients in a clean glass jar or bottle and shake to combine.

For best results, all your ingredients should be at room temperature when you begin. The cooler the oil, the more difficult it is to make an emulsion.

Once you've mixed things up, it's nice to let the flavors meld for a while, especially when you go beyond the basic formula and introduce additional ingredients like minced onion, garlic, herbs and so on. Ideally, then, you'd prepare the vinaigrette in advance and then let it sit for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours. Just don't refrigerate it during this time!

Here are a few to get you started: And for a great, simple salad you can have every day, check out Danilo's Everyday Salad.

Finally, here are a couple of videos that demonstrate the vinaigrette process: How to Make a Vinaigrette and Make Raspberry Vinaigrette.

10 Green Kitchen Products

Fagor Induction CooktopFagor America Inc.

Induction cooktops are far more efficient than gas or electric burners. Not only do they heat food faster than other cooking surface, but the cooking method is more energy-efficient: induction coils create a magnetic field that actually heats food within the pot, rather than heating the base of the pot. Even if you can't afford to replace your stove with an induction cooktop, you can still invest in Fagor's portable induction cooktop, which is great for cooking in the summer (your kitchen stays cooler because heat does not radiate off the cooking surface), as an extra burner for entertaining, or for cooking outside of your kitchen, such as in the back yard or on a boat or an RV.

How To Make Scones

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Then add cubes of cool butter and cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender as shown here.

For the exact ingredients and measurements, be sure to check out these scones recipes:

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Basic French Toast

French toast from stale bread, Member jcdevildog

My neighborhood diner serves great challah bread w/ its meals, and there's usually some bread left over: I take it home and use it for French toast. If it gets a little too dry, I just soak it in the coating for a little while before putting it in the pan. The challah keeps really well and makes the best French toast ever!

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Ratatouille: Step By Step

Ratatouille is a delicious, rustic French vegetable stew made from eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini. It matches well with beef, lamb, poultry — even fish. It also makes a hearty meal served over rice or couscous.

In addition to the eggplant, tomatoes and zucchini, this ratatouille recipe features yellow squash, red and yellow bell peppers, red onions and garlic. Next page >>

Best Egg Cookers

Whether you're making up a batch of hard-cooked eggs for Easter or Passover, or just cooking or poaching eggs for breakfast, snacks or egg salad, these egg cookers will help you make the task easy. We've included some other helpful egg-cooking and serving tools, such as toppers and slicers, so you'll be ready to make everything from deviled eggs to eggs Benedict.

Oster Egg CookerPriceGrabber

The electric Oster Egg Cooker can cook up to 8 eggs at a time, with the option to make them hard-, medium- or soft-boiled. Or, with the included tray, you can make up to 4 steam-poached eggs. The unit turns off when the eggs are cooked, and the appliance's nonstick coating makes it easy to clean.

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Color-Coded Cutting Boards

One of the most common causes of food-related illness (a.k.a food poisoning) is something called cross-contamination, or the transfer of harmful bacteria from one food product to another by way of contaminated tools, equipment or hands.

In many cases of cross-contamination, cutting boards are a prime culprit. For that reason, using separate, color-coded cutting boards for different ingredients is a great way of preventing cross-contamination.

The colors help you keep track of which cutting boards are for reserved for which types of foods, so that you're less likely to cut lettuce on the same board you just used for prepping raw poultry.

Sound complicated? Fortunately, you don't need to adopt the entire system in order to cook more safely at home. Even having one separate, distinctively colored cutting board that's reserved just for raw meat is a great idea — one that will go a long way toward minimizing your chances of a food-related illness.

Here are the different cutting board colors and their meanings:
Green: Fruits & VegetablesYellow: Raw PoultryBlue: Cooked FoodWhite: Dairy ProductsTan: Fish & SeafoodRed: Raw MeatYou can buy a complete set of color-coded cutting boards including all the colors listed above. Or you can buy the colors separately, in case you don't want the whole set. Compare prices.

Pimento Cheese

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KitchenAid Food Grinder

Giving you the ability to grind meat, fruits, vegetables, bread and hard cheeses, the KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment (compare prices) will make your KitchenAid stand mixer even more versatile than it already is.If you own a KitchenAid stand mixer, the Food Grinder Attachment (compare prices) is one of the most versatile accessories available — so much so that it actually has a number of attachments and accessories of its own.

I used the Food Grinder to make my own ground beef. Initially I was somewhat put off by the fact that pushing the cubes of meat into the hopper (using the food pusher tool that comes with the grinder) required what seemed an excessive amount of force.

But that turned out to be my own fault. I'd failed to read the instructions specifying that the mixer should be turned to Speed 4 for grinding meat. I had it on the slowest speed, which undoubtedly made the task more difficult than it needed to be. Despite this, though, the grinder still performed admirably, churning through 2? pounds of beef chuck roast in about 10 minutes.

The grinder is also expandable with a separate fruit and vegetable strainer accessory that lets you make things like applesauce, baby food, jams and chutneys. And if you're into making your own fresh pasta, there's a separate pasta maker for making macaroni and round noodles like spaghetti. There's even a separate sausage stuffer kit available.

If you're looking for a tool with basic food grinding capabilities, but you don't have a KitchenAid mixer already, I wouldn't run out and buy one just to use the Food Grinder. Then again, it's almost unimaginable that someone who's into food and likes to cook wouldn't have a KitchenAid stand mixer.

Sesame-Crusted Tuna Steaks

Great Asian Tuna Grilling Recipe, Member skfoto

Indeed, the first time I made this, it was too salty. I used ""low sodium soy"" and lessened the marinade time and it was great the second and third time.

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Cutting Board Basics

Wondering about the best kind of cutting board to use to help avoid a food-related illness? Here's all the info you need. Nonporous surfaces like plastic or glass are easier to clean than wood and thus better in terms of food safety. Wood is naturally porous, and those tiny fissures and grooves in wooden cutting boards can harbor bacteria. Which is why cutting boards made of wood aren't allowed in commercial kitchens. That being the case, why use them at home?

As for glass cutting boards, they're just awful for your knives and aren't allowed in commercial kitchens, either. Why? Because things get dropped in kitchens, and broken glass in the soup is a real no-no.

Bottom line: Use plastic or acrylic cutting boards, not wood or glass.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Pumpkin Bread Pudding, Member lahamblin

I'm so glad I found this again, your recipe is delicious and easy! I made it several times last year, but then lost it! I was searching all over the Internet and found others with the same title, but this one is unique in its simplicity. It really is top notch! I make a few simple substitutions; I replace the bread with a marbled pound cake, and add some cinnamon to whipped topping for the final touch. Thanks!

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