Name: Basic Vinaigrette
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: enough for 6 salads
Ingredients: 2 tbsp red wine vinegar; 1/2 tsp fine salt; 1 tsp Dijon mustard; 1 shallot; 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; a few grinds black pepper; 1 tsp honey

2 tbsp

1 Dissolve the salt in the acid first 2m Salt dissolves in vinegar, not in oil. Do this and it won't taste gritty.

2 Shake hard for 20 seconds 1m A jar beats a whisk — you get more shear and no washing up.

1/2 tsp

1 tsp

6 tbsp

a few grinds

1 tsp

The ratio

Three parts oil to one part acid, by volume. That is the whole thing. Every variation is a substitution inside that frame: sherry vinegar for red wine, lemon for vinegar, walnut oil for a third of the olive oil. If a dressing tastes harsh, you are below 3:1; if it tastes greasy and flat, you are above it.

What the mustard is doing

Oil and vinegar do not mix; shaking them just makes small droplets that merge again within a minute. Mustard contains mucilage and proteins that sit at the oil–water boundary and keep those droplets from touching, so the emulsion holds for hours rather than seconds. A teaspoon per 100 ml of dressing is plenty. Egg yolk does the same job far more effectively, which is why mayonnaise never breaks — but then you have made mayonnaise.

Notes

Salt in the acid, always. Salt crystals suspended in oil never dissolve, and you taste them one at a time.
Minced shallot left in the vinegar for ten minutes loses its raw bite and gains something close to sweetness.
Dress leaves at the last possible moment. Vinaigrette is mostly salt and acid, both of which pull water out of anything they sit on.
Keeps a week in the fridge. It will separate and go semi-solid; leave it out ten minutes and shake again.

Method

Dissolve the salt in the acid first

Shake hard for 20 seconds

The ratio

What the mustard is doing

Notes