Italian Dressing, ala Cook Illustrated

[RobLL]

Commercial Italian Dressing (actually it is more French) can be very good. It has a nice balance of acid, flavors, sweetness (not very much but a little), and oil. That is except the first time. Invariably the oil all gets used first, and you either have to put a oil cruet on the table or go without.

Just plain Oil and vinegar are too tart for most of us. You can make your own Italian, but you atill have to fight each time you use it to get the balance of oil and vinegar mixture you want. So I thought through the problems and here is what I came up with.

Make a vinegar/lemon/water and flavoring mixture to use, and keep in the fridge. Don't add the oil

Commercial usually has water as the first ingredient. That cuts the tartness to what most people like

It always has just a little sweetener, almost subliminal, but for this low carber who uses lots of dressing, Too Much

Commercial uses oils I don't normally use, another reason to use your oil cruet.

The flavor balance is good, obviously commercial is made to appeal to the taste buds of the folks who like Italian Dressing.

Make a small container (I used a 4 or 5 ounce herb jar), and make up the acid, water, flavoring component. Use the Extra Virgin Olive oil cruet for the oil.

Recipe:
In a small container mix equal portions of vinegar and water, you may want to vary this to your own taste. Maybe use a little lemon juice. Add flavoring, I used an Italian herb mix, and 1 packet of Splenda.

Now you can use as much of the vinegar mix as you want, and add as much oil (your preferred type), salt and pepper to taste.

I said ala Cook's Illustrated, because they typically go through and note this sort of thought process on their recipes.