The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 957

yoursaladfromturningsoggy,youneedtofigureoutaway
toprotecttheleavesfromtheoil.Anoil-in-wateremulsion,
where the oil is completely surrounded by vinegar
molecules,shouldprovidejustthatkindofprotection.
I dressed another batch of salad greens with a shaken
mixture of oil and vinegar and took an up-close-andpersonallookattheresults.Here’swhatIsaw:

That’sright.Dropsofvinegarsuspendedabovethesurface
oftheleavesbylargerdropsofoil,likelittleblobssittingin
beanbag chairs. Lifting these leaves caused a cascade of
vinegar to fall off the leaves, and examining the bottom of
thebowlconfirmedmyfears:theoilstucktotheleavesand
caused them to wilt, while the vinegar all sank to the
bottom. Clearly, I needed a surfactant to keep my oil and


vinegaremulsified.
I set up one last experiment, this time dressing two 1ounce portions of salad greens side by side.The first was
dressed with a homogenized mixture of 1 tablespoon olive
oil,1teaspoonvinegar,and½teaspoonDijonmustard.The
second was dressed with just the oil and vinegar. After
tossingthegreens,Iimmediatelyplacedeachbatchinsidea
funnelsetoverasmallglasstocatchanydrippings.

Drainingsaladgreensinafunnelallowsustoseethe
differencebetweenaproperlyemulsifiedvinaigretteanda
poorone.
Almost immediately, the nonmustardy batch started
drippingasteadytrickleofvinegarintotheglass,whilethe
well-emulsified dressing stayed firmly in place. After only
10 minutes, the oil-and-vinegar glass had nearly a full

teaspoon of vinegar in the bottom—almost the entire
amount that I had put on the greens in the first place—and
was starting to drip a few drops of oil as well. The other
glasshadshedatmostadozendrops.
The results were irrefutable: if you don’t emulsify your
vinaigrette, you end up with a pile of leaves wilting in oil