Stop throwing sad and barely dressed salads – this simple vinaigrette tip changes everything

There is no reason for a homemade vinaigrette that should never break. Not on my watch. Not on your plate.

The dressings bought in store are practical, of course, but they are also full of stabilizers, thickeners and “natural flavors” which tend to blunt the shiny snap of real vinegar and bury the nuance of good oil. A homemade vinaigrette, on the other hand, is fast, fresh, constantly customizable and – when it is well done – a silky and tart thing that clings that it was designed to stay on the Roman.

The problem? Most dressings are not well done. They break. They pool. They slide as if the salad was in teflon. And it is because the oil and the water -based acids do not mix naturally without the help of an emulsifier. There are many ways to mix these two liquids and keep them mixed, but my favorite is a humble daily ingredient that provides a perfectly stable vinaigrette each time.

Why the dressing breaks

A vinaigrette is an emulsion: a suspension of tiny droplets of a liquid (generally oil) in another (generally vinegar or other water -based acid like lemon juice). But oil and water, as you may have noticed, are not natural friends. They are molecularly incompatible, such as a cat and a cucumber.

When you combine them and shake vigorously, you temporarily force the oil in small scattered droplets throughout the aqueous phase. But without help, these droplets are quickly found again and separate. This is called coalescence, and it is the spiral of the death of the vinaigrette.

To stop this, you need an emulsifier – a substance that can stabilize these droplets of oil and prevent them from going up together. An ingredient that does it beautifully while tasting well: mustard.

Mustard: the hero of stable dressings

Mustard (in particular Dijon) is charged with natural emulsifiers such as mucilage (a polysaccharide based on plants) and proteins from mustard seeds. These molecules are amphiphiles, which means that they have an amateur side (hydrophilic) (hydrophilic) and one side that likes oil (hydrophobic).

When you add mustard to vinegar, it disperses in the aqueous phase. When you slowly add oil and whisk it, the emulsifying molecules form a coating around each small droplet of oil, preventing them from recombing. Mustard is glue that keeps oil and acid in a functional molecular marriage, but slightly tense.

Build a better vinaigrette

Here is my basic vinaigrette method. It’s fast, it’s flexible and – thank you for mustard – it does not break.

1 and 1 Start with your acid. You have a lot of choices: red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, lemon juice, champagne vinegar, whatever your preference.

2 Add a teaspoon or two of Dijon mustard. It is the emulsifier, and it also makes an even more delicious vinaigrette.

3 and 3 Add aromatics, seasoning and sweeteners. Think of chopped shallot, crushed garlic, honey or maple syrup. A pinch of salt here helps the shallots to macerate and the soft acid.

4 Whisk everything together. Or shake it in a pot if you are opposed to whipping. But do not jump this step – you need the mustard completely dispersed in the acid before adding oil.

5 Sprinkle slowly in your oil while whisking vigorously. This is the moment when the emulsion occurs – or does not do so. The slowly introduction of the oil while waving vigorously, it creates smaller droplets while giving your emulsifier while surrounding and stabilizing them. The smaller the droplets, the more the emulsion is stable.

Add the oil too quickly and these droplets will remain large and subjects to fusion. The emulsifier cannot follow and your vinaigrette separates before it strikes the Greens.

6. Taste and adjust. It is your opportunity to modify the vinaigrette to your tastes, Perhaps a touch of more vinegar, more salt or maybe a small drizzle of water if it is too thick or sour.

The role of sweeteners in the vinaigrette

You’ve probably seen dressing with honey or maple syrup that seem to stay well together. And although these ingredients help texture and access, it is essential to understand their real role.

These thickness based on sugar do not contain amphiphilic molecules – the critical compounds which bind to oil and water. This means that they do not actively emulsify, but they increase the viscosity, thickening the water -based phase (vinegar, lemon juice, etc.), which slows down the speed with which the oil droplets move, collide and possibly separate. Indeed, sweeteners slow down the merger process, time purchase but not to fundamentally improve the stability of the emulsion.

Among the most common sweeteners, the molasses is one of the most effective in slowing the separation of the phases of oil and water. Unlike other sweeteners, the molasses contains melanoids – large -scale complex compounds formed during the reaction of Maillard (Aka Browning). These molecules deepen not only the flavor but increase the viscosity of a sufficient vinaigrette to considerably delay the separation.

The sweeteners can therefore work in tandem with emulsifiers such as mustard to keep the dressing emulsified (in the case of the molasses, up to a week). You don’t need much, just a teaspoon or two, which will not make the vinaigrette significantly soft.

Other emulsifier options

Mustard is my unavoidable emulsifier for dressing because it is one of the most effective and accessible emulsifiers. It establishes a rare balance of strong emulsifying power (thanks to mucilage and protein), a sufficiently versatile flavor that plays well in a variety of dressings, stability of the shelves (no refrigeration or perisability) and immediate availability in most home kitchens.

But that does not mean that there are no other excellent choices – they simply serve slightly different functions or work better in specific contexts. Here is a ventilation of some of the most common emulsifier options and their operation.