Vinaigrette
The beliefBottled dressing is treated as a convenience, and a home-made one is expected to fail, with the oil and vinegar splitting.
The truthThree parts oil, one part acid and a spoon of mustard. The mustard holds off the split for days.
How to make it
What you need
- 180 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 60 ml vinegar or lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon of mustard
- 1 teaspoon of honey
- Half a teaspoon of salt
- Black pepper
How the engine read this list (6 lines)
| 166 g | Extra virgin olive oil | extra-virgin-olive-oil |
| 61 g | Vinegar | vinegar |
| 3 g | Mustard | mustard-seed |
| 7 g | Honey | honey |
| 3 g | Salt | salt |
| — | Black pepper | black-pepper |
An empty weight means that line could not be turned into grams — either the amount is open ("to taste") or the ingredient has no record here. Neither enters the sum as zero; they do not enter it at all.
Whisk the vinegar, salt, mustard and honey together in a jar. The salt has to dissolve now — it will not once the oil is in.
Add the olive oil in a thin stream, still whisking. Tip it in all at once and the emulsion never forms.
Or put everything in the jar, close it and shake hard for thirty seconds. Same result, less work.
Grind the pepper in last and taste. Too sharp, another teaspoon of honey; too oily, a spoon of vinegar.
The others that work the same way
Hazelnut spread
The truthRoasted hazelnuts, ground long enough, release their own oil and turn to cream on their own. The rest is cocoa and sugar.
Tahini
The truthGrind roasted sesame for long enough and it releases its own oil. You add nothing.
Mayonnaise
The truthOne yolk binds 200 ml of oil. The only reason it splits is adding the oil too fast.