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French Dressing (Teaspoon salt teaspoon pepper)
1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 tablespoons vinegar 4 tablespoons olive oil Put ingredients in small cream jar and shake. Some prefer the addition of a few drops onion juice. French Dressing is more easily prepared and largely used than any other dressing. One tablespoon, each, lemon juice and vinegar may be used.
A classic 1:2 vinaigrette, mixed by shaking rather than whisking. It takes about two minutes and dresses enough greens for four.
- YieldSix tablespoons, a little over a third of a cup. That is enough for a salad serving four; a heaped bowl of greens needs only a light coating.
- The cream jarPresumably a small glass jar of the sort cream came in. Any small screw-top jar works, and the shaking is what matters: it breaks the oil into droplets and gives a temporary emulsion that holds long enough to toss the salad.
- ProportionsTwo parts oil to one part vinegar is sharper than the three-to-one or four-to-one common now. Vinegar strength was not standardised the way today's 5 percent acidity is, so taste before committing and add oil if it bites.
- Onion juiceGrate half a small onion and press the pulp through a fine sieve, or grate on a microplane and use the liquid that collects. A few drops is the right scale; more clouds the dressing and pushes the onion to the front.
- PepperGrind it fresh and coarse.
- Salt firstDissolve the salt in the vinegar before the oil goes in. Salt will not dissolve in oil, and undissolved grains settle at the bottom of the jar.
- Holding and re-shakingWith no mustard or egg to stabilise it, the dressing separates in a few minutes. Shake again immediately before pouring, and dress the greens at the table rather than in advance.