Vinaigrettes and Salad Sauces

Many cooks are needlessly intimidated when it comes to dressing a salad. Most of the time there is no need to make a vinaigrette. Instead, you just pour over some vinegar, sprinkle on some salt and pepper, and then pour over some oil. If you are unsure of the amounts, you can measure them, but there is no need to emulsify the oil and vinegar for a simple salad.

A traditional vinaigrette is emulsified like a mayonnaise—the oil gets distributed on a microscopic level in the vinegar— but instead of an egg yolk being the emulsifier, mustard is. However, the extra virgin olive oil that most of us like on our salads clashes with mustard. Also, extra virgin olive oil can turn bitter when beaten with a whisk. If you want to make a classic mustard vinaigrette, just whisk oil into a combination of mustard, salt, pepper, and wine vinegar until the mixture comes together. Vinaigrette is a less stable emulsion than mayonnaise and usually separates if you keep it overnight. But it is so easy to make, there is little point in doing it in advance.