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French Dressing (Teaspoon salt tablespoons)
½ teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons vinegar 4 tablespoons olive oil ¼ teaspoon pepper 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 plain vinaigrette in the classic 1:2 proportion of vinegar to oil. The whole point is emulsifying it in a closed jar, and it takes ten seconds.
- ProportionsTwo tablespoons vinegar to four tablespoons oil is the working ratio; scale it up as needed. Salt is best read as about half a teaspoon for this quantity, with pepper at a quarter teaspoon.
- "Cream jar"A small lidded glass jar; any screw-top jam jar works. Shaking in a closed jar is the method the recipe calls for and gives a serviceable temporary emulsion.
- Vinegar choiceThe recipe does not specify a vinegar. A modern balsamic or sherry vinegar will dominate the oil, so cut the quantity if you use one.
- Olive oil in 1896Olive oil -- Imported olive oil of the period was likely milder than the green, peppery extra-virgin commonly sold now; a robust modern oil will make a sharper dressing.
- Onion juiceGrate a piece of onion on a fine grater and use the liquid that collects, or press grated onion in a sieve. A crushed garlic clove left in the jar for ten minutes is a reasonable substitute.
- Lemon variationThe suggested tablespoon each of lemon juice and vinegar makes a lighter, fruitier dressing that suits delicate greens and cooked vegetables.
- Yield and useAbout 6 tablespoons, enough for a salad for four. It separates within minutes, so shake again immediately before pouring. Refrigerated oil will cloud and thicken; let it come to room temperature first.
In nineteenth-century American cookbooks French dressing generally meant just this: oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, shaken together and poured on greens, alongside the cooked and mayonnaise-type dressings also in use. The sweetened, tomato-tinted orange bottle sold as French dressing in American supermarkets today is a later commercial product, quite unlike this formula.