Ina Garten-Inspired Lemon Vinaigrette

Compiled by Igor Kukolj, Editor. Nobody here has cooked this — how these are made.

Two minutes of work, and one detail decides whether it tastes seasoned or sporadically salty.

Salt dissolves in water and not in fat. Lemon juice is mostly water; olive oil is not. Put the salt in with the oil already whisked in and the crystals sit there, suspended, dissolving slowly if at all — so some mouthfuls are sharp and some are flat. Dissolve the salt in the lemon juice first, before any oil goes near it, and it is evenly distributed through everything that follows.

Same for the mustard, the garlic and the honey. Everything water-soluble goes in at the start.

Lemon needs a shorter ratio than vinegar

The standard three parts oil to one part acid is written for vinegar. Lemon juice is less acidic and considerably more watery, so the same ratio tastes oily and dull. Two to one is a better starting point for citrus, and you can push to one and a half to one for a dressing meant to cut through something rich.

Mustard is an emulsifier, not just a flavour

A teaspoon of Dijon holds oil and juice together for hours instead of minutes. Its mucilage coats the oil droplets and stops them merging back into a slick. A vinaigrette without it separates on the way to the table — which is fine, if you know to whisk it again.

Taste it on a leaf

A vinaigrette tasted alone always seems too sharp and too salty, because nothing is diluting it. Dip a piece of lettuce in. What you are judging is how it behaves on the salad, and against a leaf it will usually need more salt than your spoon suggested.

Bottled lemon juice does not work here

There are only six ingredients and one of them is doing most of the talking. Bottled juice is pasteurised, which drives off the volatile oils and leaves a flat, slightly metallic acidity. With this few components there is nothing to hide behind.

Storing

A week in the fridge. Olive oil solidifies when cold — leave it out for fifteen minutes and shake. Garlic keeps getting stronger as it sits, so make a garlic-heavy batch small.