It's Really French Isn't It?

I can't tell you the true origin of French salad dressing but I can say with certainty that it is not French. Using "trusty" Wikipedia as my unflappable encyclopedic resource, I discovered the somewhat sweet dressing is as popular in Britain as it is in the US. Wiki has it surfacing on US restaurant menus as early as 1899, but a much more reliable source, The Cook's Country Cookbook (the wonderful compendium of lost culinary treasures) found it in cookbooks as early as the 1930's.

I have been making quick homemade vinaigrette's for some time now and I'm always looking for new flavors to add variety to my salads. I don't believe you can ever go wrong with a balsamic vinegar and red or white wine vinegars are a nice break from the routine. Add a little Dijon mustard to help emulsify the dressing and you have a rich and silky, flavorful salad topper. But these are not the dressings I wish to discuss.

French Dressing is another version of vinaigrette; however, it's emulsifying base, ketchup, makes it sweet. This brings me to the purpose of this particular blog entry. I intend for this to be a theme that I will pursue for a little while. You've heard of the movie Julie & Julia about a woman who blogs her way through Julia Child's classic cookbook The Art of French Cooking. I'm using the same idea to help me blog about recipes in various cookbooks like The Cook's Country Cookbook (CCC). This book was produced by America's Test Kitchen and it provides recipes cataloging classic American fare. It's, more or less, the type of food I like to cook along with Soul Food, classic southern cuisine, and classic French dishes. This personal journey will help me broaden my appreciation for American cookery and I want to share it with you. Today is all about French Dressing.

In general, I prefer homemade over store bought. It has slowly become a point of pride with me. It's hard for me to completely trust a recipe so I generally make changes. I think CCC got it mostly right but I made a couple of small adjustments. The following recipe is VERY simple and I think you'll find it to be something you can add to your repertoire with little effort. CCC says "Odds are you have everything you need in the pantry..."

Here's what you'll need:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar or distilled white vinegar
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 teaspoon grated onion
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce (or more to taste)

How it's prepared reminds me of the song that goes "You put the lime in the coconut and mix it all up..." CCC says to place "all the ingredients to a lidded container and shake vigorously..." What follows are my slight variations,

I added a bit more vinegar, maybe a tablespoon, and I chopped the onion. I like for my onion to provide noticeable texture to the dressing and the additional vinegar helped it to taste less like ketchup and more like traditional French (American French that is).

CCC offers a Creamy variation that I have not yet tried. It calls for the addition of 1/4 cup mayonnaise and if you use this variation I would suggest making the mayo yourself. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it if you try it. As before, you feedback is something I take seriously, even if it's stinging.