Professional chef Adrienne Cheatham demonstrates how to make three dressings that will upgrade any salad: broken, emulsified, and creamy.
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00:00I'm Adrienne Cheatham, I'm a professional chef,
00:02and today I'm gonna show you how to make
00:04three salad dressings at home.
00:07We're gonna be going over techniques that pros use
00:10to whip up easy and delicious salad dressings.
00:12This is Salad Dressing 101.
00:15Today we're making three basic dressings,
00:18broken, emulsified, and creamy or mayonnaise-style base.
00:23Once you have these basic ratios and techniques,
00:26you can literally get as fancy as you want.
00:29Oil and vinegar make a vinaigrette.
00:35So a broken vinaigrette means that no matter
00:38how much you agitate them and try to combine the two,
00:41they will eventually separate in the container.
00:44This is the ideal dressing for a simple salad
00:47served along a simple dish like a roast chicken
00:51or roasted vegetables with a little side salad.
00:54A basic broken vinaigrette doesn't need anything,
00:57technically, other than oil and vinegar.
01:00So we are going to add some aromatics
01:03just to take it up to the next level.
01:05I like to use shallots or even red onion
01:07because they don't add as much of that sulfurous
01:10kind of funky flavor to your vinaigrettes.
01:12Add some cold water to the jar to let these start soaking.
01:16For this part, I don't need to measure anything
01:18because the water will get poured off.
01:20I'll probably let these soak for two to three minutes
01:22just to really help dilute the flavor of the shallot.
01:25The shallot has soaked for a little bit,
01:27now I'm just gonna pour the water off
01:28and build my broken vinaigrette.
01:30Back into the same jar.
01:31The main thing to remember with vinaigrettes
01:34is kind of the ratio.
01:35For this broken, simple vinaigrette,
01:38I'm using two parts oil to one part vinegar.
01:42A lot of vinaigrette recipes that you'll see
01:45will say three parts oil to one part vinegar.
01:49For me, that is way too oily.
01:51For the vinegar, I'm gonna use a quarter of a cup.
01:55I'm using red wine vinegar,
01:56but you can use any kind of vinegar that you want.
02:00You could use any type of oil as well.
02:02I prefer to use olive oil
02:04or extra virgin olive oil for my vinaigrette.
02:06So quarter cup of red wine vinegar,
02:08half a cup of extra virgin olive oil.
02:10The only other things that vinaigrette need are seasoning.
02:14For that, we're gonna use a half a teaspoon of fine sea salt.
02:18If you're using kosher salt, start with the same amount,
02:21taste it, and if you need more, just add a little more.
02:24Black pepper, quarter of a teaspoon.
02:26The other good thing about using shallots in here
02:29is that the vinegar will kind of pickle them.
02:31So after a couple of days of sitting in the vinaigrette,
02:34your shallots will have these nice pops
02:36of like pickled onion kind of crunchiness in your salads.
02:39So this is ready to go.
02:41You can pop it in your fridge
02:42and keep it for a couple of weeks,
02:44shake it up when you wanna use it,
02:46or you can go the extra mile
02:48and add one more layer of flavor
02:51to make your vinaigrette really special.
02:53And that is to add some thyme.
02:55I don't need to chop it.
02:56I don't need to do anything else to it.
02:59Just shake it up.
03:00The essential oils from the herbs
03:01will start to infuse in there.
03:03You could also swap out thyme
03:05for pretty much any herb that you want.
03:07If you have dry herbs in your pantry,
03:10add a couple of pinches in here.
03:12And this is how you make a broken vinaigrette.
03:14So I have a nice, light mescaline mix.
03:18A little bit of salt and pepper really changes a salad
03:21and helps bring out all the flavors of everything.
03:23For a basic vinaigrette, why not use a basic lettuce?
03:27Now, broken vinaigrette,
03:29you have to shake it and act quickly.
03:32So as soon as I shake it, I'm gonna drizzle,
03:34start tossing, and get right on the plate
03:36because it will really separate in real time.
03:40Just a light drizzle because a little bit
03:42really does go a long way with a broken vinaigrette.
03:48Mm.
03:50That is the perfect amount of oil and vinegar.
03:53Well-balanced really brings out the flavor of the lettuce
03:57while keeping everything in your mouth bright and fresh
04:00and ready for the next bite.
04:04We are gonna make a basic emulsified vinaigrette.
04:07Emulsified means that the fat and the liquid component,
04:11in this case vinegar, are fully suspended
04:15and dispersed within each other.
04:17So you're not getting separate oil and separate vinegar.
04:21You're getting a homogenous mixture of oil and vinegar,
04:25fully emulsified, that will not break.
04:27You can take your broken vinaigrette
04:30and make an emulsified vinaigrette out of that.
04:33The only difference, really,
04:35is that you're adding an agent
04:37to keep them fully suspended together.
04:39So if I'm eating something richer,
04:41something fatty, something heavy,
04:43I would want something that's more
04:44of an emulsified vinaigrette.
04:46First, I need to anchor my bowl.
04:48There are a few different things
04:49that are natural emulsifiers.
04:51Dijon mustard is probably the most popular
04:54and one of the most effective.
04:56You have to start with the emulsifier
04:58and then add your liquid.
04:59I'm gonna add a half a teaspoon of salt
05:02because everything needs salt.
05:04Pepper, about a quarter teaspoon.
05:07Garlic.
05:08And you don't need to chop this by hand.
05:10I just like to use a microplane.
05:12A quarter cup of sherry vinegar.
05:15I love the flavor of sherry vinegar.
05:17It's a little earthy, a little funky,
05:18but you could substitute any type of acid.
05:21Lemon juice would work great.
05:23Got my whisk.
05:25I'm gonna make sure that the Dijon
05:27is fully dissolved into the liquid.
05:31And for this, I'm using regular olive oil.
05:33Straight extra virgin olive oil can get really bitter.
05:37In broken vinaigrette,
05:38I like to do two parts fat to one part acid.
05:41In the emulsified vinaigrette,
05:43I like to bring it up on the fat to three parts.
05:47The more fat that you add into an emulsified vinaigrette
05:51will make it thicker.
05:52I really want it to have enough viscosity
05:55to coat the lettuce nice and evenly.
05:57All right, let's do this.
05:59So you wanna start getting the motion
06:01and then slowly start to add your oil
06:04because you really need to disperse that fat
06:07into the mixture to get it stable.
06:10Sometimes I use a blender for this
06:12or even a hand blender.
06:14If you go too fast, it's just gonna stick together.
06:17All these tiny droplets of oil will not separate.
06:21They'll just come together
06:22and stay together in the vinaigrette.
06:24So keep whisking for a few seconds
06:26after you've finished adding the oil
06:28just to make sure that everything is thoroughly combined.
06:32So if you see here, it's not separating.
06:35It's homogenous and one color from top to bottom.
06:39That is thick enough to coat your lettuce beautifully.
06:43And if it separates, just use a blender
06:44and pour it slowly in with another teaspoon
06:47of Dijon mustard in the bottom.
06:49A little bit of salt and pepper.
06:51Here I'm using sliced romaine
06:53because romaine has a really high water content.
06:56It's crispy, it's crunchy.
06:58That'll help offset the punchiness
07:00of the emulsified vinaigrette.
07:02Mm.
07:06The emulsified vinaigrette coats the lettuce beautifully
07:10and gives you an even amount of fat and acid
07:12in every single bite.
07:13The sherry vinegar gives it a little bit of sweetness
07:16and it gives you that punchiness
07:18and a little bit of spice from the Dijon.
07:23The last dressing that I'm gonna show you how to make
07:25is an emulsified in the style of mayonnaise.
07:28The thing that makes mayonnaise different
07:30from another type of emulsified vinaigrette
07:32is that mayonnaise uses egg yolks as the emulsifier
07:35instead of Dijon mustard.
07:37So we're using egg yolks here
07:38to hold our oil and our vinegar together.
07:41I would love a creamy dressing
07:43with something lean and light like fish
07:45because it's gonna add some of that fat content
07:48that I'm not getting and help balance everything out.
07:50I'm gonna start with about one small clove of garlic,
07:54adding a half a teaspoon of whole black peppercorns,
07:58two egg yolks, about a teaspoon of salt.
08:03We're still sticking with a quarter of a cup of acid
08:06but half of that is gonna be lemon juice
08:09and the other half of that is gonna be apple cider vinegar.
08:12The apple cider vinegar is gonna give us
08:15a little bit of like funky, earthy, umami kind of flavor
08:18and the lemon juice is gonna give us
08:20bright floral acid flavors
08:22to really liven up this creamy vinaigrette.
08:25Now, some people are kind of weirded out
08:27about using raw egg yolks.
08:29If you're not comfortable,
08:30buy pasteurized egg yolks and use that.
08:34Just like making the emulsified vinaigrette
08:36using Dijon mustard,
08:38we're gonna get this going together first
08:40before we start adding our oil.
08:42For the oil in this recipe,
08:43I'm using half a cup of neutral oil
08:46and half a cup of extra virgin olive oil.
08:49I don't wanna use 100% extra virgin olive oil
08:52because it will get very bitter,
08:54partially because that is the flavor profile.
08:56So using a blender makes a really stable emulsion
08:59and it's creating these teeny tiny
09:02like microscopic globules of fat
09:04to be dispersed within the liquid.
09:06So you see how white and pale the yolks are already getting?
09:10It looks like they're cooked.
09:11Now I'm gonna start drizzling in the oil slowly.
09:15Neutral oil.
09:17One thing that you really wanna try to avoid doing
09:20is jacking the speed up because if you go too fast,
09:23it can kind of shock the emulsion
09:25and make things break and separate.
09:27So I have some parsley and some dill,
09:29some of the tender stems and the leaves,
09:32and I'm just gonna put these right in, roughly chopped.
09:37And again, I'm gonna make sure my speed is on low
09:39and I'm gonna start to let these herbs
09:41just break down a little bit
09:42and start to flavor the dressing
09:44without becoming a full on puree.
09:53There, just a couple of seconds for that
09:56and we are done.
09:57Oh my God, that is so pretty and it smells so good.
10:00And that is how you make a creamy vinaigrette.
10:03A little bit of salt and pepper.
10:04This has a good amount of black pepper in it
10:06so I don't need too much.
10:08This vinaigrette is thicker so I'm not just gonna pour it.
10:11These greens are in the chicory family
10:14so everything has a little bit of bitterness,
10:15a little bit more hearty flavor
10:18and they stand up to a thicker vinaigrette
10:20because they have a more assertive flavor of their own.
10:22I love endive and kind of bitter chicory greens.
10:31That is so floral and so herby.
10:33You're getting all that dill and all that parsley,
10:36little bits of pepper.
10:38Everything is so well balanced.
10:39You get some brightness and acidity.
10:41You also get earthy notes.
10:43Like this is a meal in itself
10:45or it can be served alongside something.
10:48But to me, a creamy dressing
10:50with all this beautiful flavor and aromatics
10:53is kind of the main event.
10:55This is the kind of salad that I would add
10:57a very light protein to like a poached
11:01or just simple chicken breast
11:03and really just let it absorb all the flavors around it.
11:06Another thing that I would do,
11:08a little endive and just use it as a dip.
11:12It's so versatile.
11:13Making salad dressing at home is really easy.
11:16You get to use up a ton of ingredients
11:18that you already have in your pantry
11:20and you get to leave out all the unwanted additives
11:23that are in store-bought processed salad dressing.
11:26Once you have the basic ratios and techniques
11:29on how to make these different types
11:31of salad dressings at home,
11:33you can do anything your mind can come up with.
11:38I'm oil.
11:39I'm liquid.
11:40We don't like each other.