Passionate Homemaking

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21 Responses to “Make it Yourself - Dressings”

1. Tia Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 am

   I’ve never used store bought dress­ings. I’ve been making my own dress­ings for years. I exper­i­ment all the time. If you have the right vine­gars around, some olive oil, you can pretty much add any­thing to it. I try to stay clear of mayo in dress­ings, because of the fats, I’m too lazy to make my own mayo, so I buy store bought. And store bought is pretty high in fat. They say if you can’t see tru your dress­ing, that it’s high in fat!

   Lind­say, do you use Kosher salt?

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   Mrs. Taft replied on February 22nd, 2008:

   What do you use instead of mayo? if you ever do? I think mayo is dis­gust­ing and I can’t eat it! I can taste it imme­di­ately no matter how “hidden” in a dish it is, and I have to spit it right out or I gag. My Grandma makes this deli­cious potato salad, and just for me, she puts sour cream in it instead. <3

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2. Barbara Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 2:49 am

   You post is per­fect timing as I’m just learn­ing how to make salad dress­ings. I love pop­py­seed dress­ing; how­ever, I do not like lemon-​flavored any­thing. Can I omit the lemon juice and still get a great PS dress­ing?

   Thanks,
   Bar­bara

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   Lindsay replied on February 22nd, 2008:

   Yes, you can def­i­nitely elim­i­nate the lemon juice and increase the oil, to your taste!

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3. Kristi Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 8:20 am

   My father was a pro at making Caesar dress­ing. My sister always paid atten­tion to how he made it, so after his pass­ing, she became the go-​to person for per­fect Caesar. FINALLY, I started paying atten­tion and now I am also a “pro”.

   Any­ways, start with 1-2 garlic cloves and slice them up into small pieces. Put in a medium bowl (prefer­ably wooden. Don’t ask me why, it is just better!) and add some salt. With the back of a fork, smush the garlic into the salt to create a paste. Then, add all the other ingre­di­ents you have listed, minus the sour cream and anchovy (yuck!), and up the Worces­ter­shire, the vine­gar and the Dijon amounts and add freshly ground pepper. Whip it all up with the fork. I wish I could give you exact amounts, but my dad never mea­sured any­thing so we just go by looks, feel and taste! He also used a egg yolk, but I have since omit­ted that and taste no dif­fer­ence.

   How long do these other dress­ings stay fresh in the fridge?

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   Lindsay replied on February 22nd, 2008:

   Thanks Kristi for shar­ing! That is very help­ful!

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4. N.& J. Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 10:02 am

   Have you ever used any­thing like a home­made may­on­naise in your ranch dress­ing? I’m not a fan of the store bough stuff, except in this one cookie recipe (I know, scary…right?) So I was curi­ous how it might hold up. Thanks for all of these great recipes!
   We’ve actu­ally used your butter recipe, and posted the results on our blog:)
   Thanks!
   -N & J

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5. Mrs. Taft Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 am

   I agree-EW@anchovies! Thanks for shar­ing all of this. I would love to make my own dress­ings, and now I think I will try some of these How long do they keep?

   [Reply]

   Lindsay replied on February 22nd, 2008:

   My dress­ings keep for a long time. Let’s just say I have never had one go bad on me, and there is just the two of us. I just started using my home­made mayo, so we’ll see about the dura­tion of the pop­py­seed. I would prob­a­bly esti­mate the pop­py­seed and ranch to last about two weeks, but it also just depends on how fast you use it.

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   Mrs. Taft replied on February 22nd, 2008:

   Thanks

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6. lori Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 10:41 am

   What a neat idea! I am always trying to save money, and it has never occured to me that I could make my own dress­ings. I’m def­i­nitely going to try this. (I found your blog today on Frugal Friday, thanks for the link to Sto­ry­Of­Stuff. My hus­band and I are just start­ing to join the “green” rev­o­lu­tion and I really enjoyed the video)

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7. Peggy Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm

   Thanks for these recipes! I about cried yes­ter­day when I had to pay $3 each for some organic dress­ing!!

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8. Tia Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm

   Very rarely. But I keep mayo in the house, only because my hus­band likes it. If I make potato salad, I use sour cream. Reduced fat of course. The only thing I’ll use mayo in is egg salad. I use a little of it, and add some sour cream to it.

   I try and keep my dress­ings simple, most com­monly I’ll just use oil and vine­gar. But some­times I’ll see a chef (on tv) make a new dress­ing and I’ll want to try it. So I try and keep the pop­u­lar vine­gars around, some fresh herbs, and some garlic. But I tend to buy the garlic around in a jar for me. I’m a little lazy in that sense.

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9. Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home Says:
   February 22nd, 2008 at 9:51 pm

   I’m excited to try the lemon pop­py­seed dress­ing. I love making my own vinai­grettes, but there’s this restau­rant salad I adore that comes with a creamy, sweet and tangy lemon dress­ing and it’s really what makes the salad. As soon as I can have honey again, it’ll be on my to-​make list!

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10. Jen Says:
    February 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    Thanks for shar­ing these! I found your blog through Frugal Friday. I am enjoy­ing so many entries!

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11. Jessica Says:
    February 25th, 2008 at 11:46 am

    Here is how I make Caesar dress­ing, not tra­di­tional, but every­one likes it.

    1-2 garlics cloves, add sea salt and smash with knife or fork (basi­cally make a paste)
    1 tsp anchovy paste
    juice of 1-2 lemons depend­ing on how juicy they are
    1/2 cup of may­on­naise
    pepper and salt to taste
    1/2 cup parme­san cheese

    After you smash the garlic, add the anchovy paste and mayo and mix well. Add the lemon juice until you get the con­sis­tency you want and season to taste. Then add lots of parme­san cheese. I serve it on romain let­tuce with extra cheese and home­made crou­tons I haven’t made this in a long time either.

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12. Alissa Says:
    April 4th, 2008 at 6:57 am

    HI Lind­say,

    I real­ize this is an older post, but I remem­bered read­ing it awhile back, so I decided to search for it. I’m in the middle of clean­ing out my fridge, and I have a ques­tion! You sort of answered it already for some­one else - how long do your home­made condi­ments keep? I’ve been start­ing to make my own, but the only draw­back is there is no “best before” date on my jars. I have a couple of home­made salad dress­ings, and a jar of home­made pizza sauce that has been in the fridge since March 14th (I dated it!)… we have pizza on the menu tonight, but I find myself ques­tion­ing whether I should use the sauce. It’s not really saving us any money if I keep throw­ing stuff out. I also want to start making my own ketchup and such, but again, I’m not sure how long it would keep! How do you decide what keeps for how long? Any tips would be much appre­ci­ated.

    Alissa

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    Lindsay replied on April 5th, 2008:

    Alissa, I always taste my condi­ments or smell before using to make sure they are still palat­able, but I hon­estly have never had an issue with them going bad. I think the aver­age rec­om­men­da­tion is that they last for 2 weeks (that is specif­i­cally recipes made with dairy prod­ucts). The may­on­naise recipe I use says two weeks unless you add whey, and then it lasts a month. Def­i­nitely date your jars when you make them and go from there. I have a ketchup recipe I will be post­ing soon. Make in small batches if you are wor­ried about using them beyond two weeks.

    In regards to tomato prod­ucts (pizza sauce, etc), tomato prod­ucts last a long time. I know they are bad if they start to grow things. Store them in the freezer instead of wast­ing it in the fridge! I make a large batch of spaghetti sauce at a time and divide into smaller batches for freez­ing. When it’s time for pizza, etc. I just pull out a bag!

    The thing to keep in mind is that store bought dress­ings and condi­ments have the preser­v­a­tives to make them last for­ever, which we are trying to avoid, as they are not good for you. Don’t worry too much about it. Once again, I haven’t had any prob­lem using them up or going bad.

    Hope that helps!

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13. Alissa Says:
    April 5th, 2008 at 4:19 pm

    Thanks Lind­say! Great tips. I look for­ward to seeing your ketchup recipe!!

    Alissa

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14. Kathleen Says:
    April 7th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

    Lind­say, would you post some­time on the idea of eating full-​fat foods (the Nour­ish­ing Tra­di­tions idea)? I’m curi­ous and a bit mys­ti­fied by it…

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15. Kelly Says:
    July 28th, 2008 at 11:51 am

    Yum - the Ranch is fan­tas­tic! I thinned it with a little milk & dou­bled the spices. It’s really good!

    [Reply]

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