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French Dressing Foundation Recipe
1/2 cup salad oil 1/4 cup vinegar or lemon juice 1 1/4 teaspoons salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper dash of cayenne 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar Place all ingredients in covered glass jar. Shake before serving, until dressing is thick as syrup. Keep in refrigerator if any is left over. French Fruit Dressing: To 1/2 the French Dressing Recipe add 1 tablespoon orange juice and 2 1/2 teaspoons sugar. Make the French Dressing with lemon juice. Shake before serving.
Roquefort French Dressing: To 1 French Dressing Recipe add crumbled Roquefort cheese, as taste indicates.
Chili French Dressing: To 1 French Dressing Recipe add 1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar, 1 1/4 teaspoons minced onion, 1/4 teaspoon paprika, 2 1/2 tablespoons chili sauce. Let stand several hours, shake well before serving. Thousand Island French Dressing: To 1 French Dressing Recipe add 1/4 cup chili sauce, 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, and 1/3 cup whipped cream. Shake all together in covered fruit jar and serve immediately. Vinaigrette Dressing: To 1/2 the French Dressing Recipe add 2 springs chopped parsley, 1 chopped shallot, 2 chopped chives, and 2 springs chervil; shake very thoroughly before serving.
A jar-shaken vinaigrette with five variations built on it. The base is unusually sharp by modern standards, and a couple of the printed quantities need judgment before you commit them to the jar.
- The ratioTwo parts oil to one part acid is sharper than the 3:1 ratio more usual in modern vinaigrettes. Taste after the first shake and add oil by the tablespoon if it bites.
- Salt and sugar quantitiesThe printed amounts of salt and sugar are oddly precise and read as high for a 3/4-cup dressing. Start with 1/2 teaspoon of each, shake, taste, and build from there.
- Salad oilIn a book of this vintage this means a bland, neutral oil; cottonseed and corn oils were both sold for the purpose. Use grapeseed, sunflower or a light olive oil; a strong extra-virgin will fight the sugar.
- Shaking is the whole methodThere is no emulsifier here beyond agitation, so the dressing thickens only briefly and will separate within minutes. Shake hard at the table, not in the kitchen.
- Chili sauceNot a hot sauce. Early-twentieth-century chili sauce is a thick, sweet-sour tomato relish closer to a chunky ketchup; bottled versions are still sold under that name.
- The Thousand Island versionThe original says to shake and serve immediately; whipped cream in an acid dressing will not hold long. Whip it soft, shake once, and pour.
- RoquefortCrumble it in and let it sit half an hour so the cheese softens and salts the dressing; then cut back or omit the added salt in the base.
- Vinaigrette herbsParsley and chervil are meant as sprigs. Chop everything fine and dress the salad soon after, as shallot and chives go harsh in acid overnight.
- YieldThe base makes about 3/4 cup, enough for a salad for four to six.