Mauer: You're in control of ingredients when you make salad dressings at home
Ever take the time to read the ingredient list on a bottle of commercial salad dressing? If you've learned what I've learned, that list may give you pause. If you paused, too, may I suggest that you head to your kitchen where you control the ingredients and make the dressing, as I do? Here's my story.
Soybean oil is the main oil in almost all commercial salad dressings? I have issues with soybean oil.
Back in the early 1970s, when I was just starting to really explore home cooking, I decided to make mayonnaise since I'd seen it done on a television cooking show (probably Julia) and it didn't look that difficult.
At that time, my favorite mayonnaise was Hellmann's. I went to my refrigerator and pulled out a bottle and checked the ingredients: soybean oil, egg, vinegar, salt, sugar and lemon juice. I had everything in my kitchen but soybean oil. I headed to my local health foods store and bought a bottle of natural soybean oil.
When I began preparing my mayonnaise, I should have sensed there was an issue when I opened the soybean oil bottle and the oil didn't have a light scent; it smelled strongly of plastic.
This oil had a deeper color than other grocery-store vegetable oils. If memory serves, it was a reddish-yellow. Never having bought or used soybean oil, I didn't give it another thought. Undeterred, using my wire whisk, I made my mayonnaise and was impressed at how well it came together. It had mayonnaise's creamy texture, but the color was yellowish compared to store-bought mayonnaise.
The biggest difference was the flavor. My mayonnaise didn't smell like Hellmann's and, honestly, tasted terrible. My inedible mayonnaise experiment hit the trash. I didn't come back to homemade mayonnaise until about eight years ago when I started making homemade mayonnaise from extra-virgin, cold-pressed organic olive oil - a product then unavailable in stores.
At that time, I worked for an agricultural trading company that, among other agricultural products, sold soybean oil. The oil they sold was called RBD soybean oil. Curious, I asked what RBD meant and was told that meant Refined, Bleached and Deodorized - RBD. Aha, that explained what had happened decades ago. That soybean oil had not been refined, bleached or - importantly - deodorized.
Today, my go-to mayonnaise of choice is made from pure avocado oil (there are at least three brands of 100-percent avocado oil mayonnaise currently available). Check the avocado oil mayonnaise ingredient list on some commercial mayonnaise and you'll frequently find they are a blend of avocado oil combined with canola oil and, oh yeah, soybean oil. A friend of mine told me they stopped buying bottled ranch dressing because of its ingredients, especially soybean oil. Hidden Valley does make an "organic" version of their famous ranch dressing, and I applaud them for that. For many people. the remainder of the commercial "ranch" salad dressings have possible issues - such as MSG - beyond soybean oil.
Over the years I've tried to make a decent homemade ranch-style dressing from different recipes. All failed, mostly due to the out-of-balance herb and spice components. But then I came across one shared by The New York Times and made it my way. Give this a try; you'll be amazed.
• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at don@theleanwizard.com.