I make an Italian salad dressing with vinegar, water, oil, and garlic
and onion powders. As soon as I mix it up, the oil begins to separate
out. It happens so fast that no matter how quickly I work, I have
difficulty pouring part of the dressing from one bottle to another,
still maintaining the correct proportion of ingredients.

It seems to me that in a restaurant the salad dressings were more
integrated together...less or slower separation. I asked the
proprieter of my local restaurant how he did it. He said I shouldn't
be using extra virgin olive oil, rather use light olive oil.

So I tried it and still found very rapid separation.

Does anyone have any suggestion for preparing a salad dressing that
will stay mixed for a longer period of time?

Gary wrote:

> Does anyone have any suggestion for preparing a salad dressing that
> will stay mixed for a longer period of time?

You need an emulsifier. Try a teaspoon of your mustard of choice.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

Thanks for the tip. Do you mean dry mustard or prepared mustard, or
does it matter?

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 07:03:11 GMT, Reg > wrote:

>Gary wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have any suggestion for preparing a salad dressing that
>> will stay mixed for a longer period of time?
>
>You need an emulsifier. Try a teaspoon of your mustard of choice.

Thanks for the tip. Do you mean dry mustard or prepared mustard, or
does it matter?

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 07:03:11 GMT, Reg > wrote:

>Gary wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have any suggestion for preparing a salad dressing that
>> will stay mixed for a longer period of time?
>
>You need an emulsifier. Try a teaspoon of your mustard of choice.

Gary replied to Reg (I undid the top-posting):

>> You need an emulsifier. Try a teaspoon of your mustard of choice.
>
> Thanks for the tip. Do you mean dry mustard or prepared mustard, or
> does it matter?

Either dry or prepared mustard will work as an emulsifier, although the
flavors will of course be very different.

Another common emulsifier is egg yolk. If you're concerned about
salmonella, use pasteurized eggs. (I don't know where you live; there are
many places in the world where salmonella in raw eggs isn't a problem.)

A less-common emulsifier for the home cook (though *very* common
commercially) is lecithin, which is available in most health-food stores.

Bob

"Gary" > wrote in message
...
> I make an Italian salad dressing with vinegar, water, oil, and
garlic
> and onion powders. As soon as I mix it up, the oil begins to
separate
> out. It happens so fast that no matter how quickly I work, I have
> difficulty pouring part of the dressing from one bottle to another,
> still maintaining the correct proportion of ingredients.
>
> It seems to me that in a restaurant the salad dressings were more
> integrated together...less or slower separation. I asked the
> proprieter of my local restaurant how he did it. He said I
shouldn't
> be using extra virgin olive oil, rather use light olive oil.
>
> So I tried it and still found very rapid separation.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestion for preparing a salad dressing that
> will stay mixed for a longer period of time?


I don't think the solution has anything to do with the type of oil you
are using.

Try using guar gum as a stbilizer.I think that it works better than
anything else with salad dressings for the following reasons. It
combines easily; it adds no flavor of its own; a very small amount
goes a long way; and it works well when mixed into cold
oil-and-vinegar type dressings without the need to be heated as with
most starches. Try using 1/4 tsp for 16 oz. of salad dressing. Adding
too much will cause the dressing to be overly thickened. Guar gum can
be purchased at health food stores. It is derived from the guar bean
which is native to India.