How to Thin a Too-Thick Salad Dressing | Lifehacker
You don’t should make your personal salad dressing on a regular basis—the bottled stuff could be useful, particularly if you happen to like making an attempt out new flavors. Still, there are occasions a private contact can actually remodel a store-bought dressing. Namely, the gloppy form. You know the sort—too thick to pour, so you’ll want to use a knife to fish it out. Well there’s a straightforward and flavorful method to personalize the consistency of your too-thick salad dressing, and it’s not by including water.
The parts of salad dressing
Water, unsurprisingly, waters down a salad dressing. It dilutes the flavour and degrades the feel. The dressing transforms into one thing I can solely describe as “gray” (in each shade and taste), and drips off all the salad elements. Instead, select a liquid ingredient that can add taste to the dressing. To do this, now we have to think about what salad dressings are product of within the first place.
This is absolutely the place the apply of constructing your personal dressing is useful—you get clued in on the key gamers: acid, oil, and emulsifiers. (Read right here for the one information you’ll ever must make your personal French dressing.) Regardless of if the salad dressing is an oily French dressing, or a creamy dressing, all of them nonetheless use these three parts. The acid may be lemon or orange juice, or apple cider vinegar. The oil might be olive oil, canola, or walnut oil. The emulsifier could be mustard, tahini, egg yolks, or a pre-made emulsification like mayonnaise.
How to skinny out salad dressing
To skinny your gloppy salad dressing you simply want to pick out the acid or the oil ingredient to assist loosen it up. This will skinny the consistency whereas additionally holding true to the dressing’s unique taste profile. If you’re undecided the place to start out, try the ingredient checklist in your bottle of salad sauce. The first two or three elements are certain to provide the major acid or oil of their recipe. For my bottle of Trader Joe’s Goddess Dressing, which I discover to be a tad too thick for my liking, the primary elements are canola oil and apple cider vinegar. I’ve my choose: I can add a tad extra zing with vinegar, or hold it delicate with canola oil. I often go for the vinegar, however if you happen to solely have the oil obtainable then that’s the proper selection.
To skinny the consistency of the entire bottle
If it’s a brand new bottle, take some dressing out so as to have house for the added liquid ingredient. Presumably that’s the bit you’ll use on your instant salad wants. For an eight-ounce bottle of dressing, take out two tablespoons of the dressing as is and put it in a bowl or in a small jar with a lid. Add one tablespoon of the oil or acid of your selection on to the bottle. Close the lid and provides it a superb shake. Check the consistency. If you’d prefer it even thinner, add as much as yet one more tablespoon of the liquid. If you’ll want to take it even additional, you’ll be able to proceed on this path—however word that the elevated ratio of acid or oil will begin to considerably impression the flavour of the unique dressing.
To skinny a person portion of salad dressing
Start with two tablespoons of the cumbersome dressing in a bowl or small jar. Depending on how thick the dressing begins out and your private preferences you’ll want to regulate the consistency slightly at a time. Start by including one teaspoon of the acid or oil you selected. Use a whisk to include it, or when you have a jar, shut the lid and provides it a shake. Add extra if you’ll want to. For two tablespoons of a medium-thick dressing, I add a couple of teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar to get my most well-liked outcomes. If you go too skinny, you’ll be able to at all times add a bit extra of the unique dressing to take it a step again.
This trick can also be useful if you happen to’re making an attempt to stretch the tip of your salad dressing bottle, or the entire thing. Now there’s no motive so that you can have a salad that’s weighed down by a thickset dressing.