Homemade dressings are better than your ordinary salad dressings. You can make them just the way you like them, you decide what to put in them, and they don’t have preservatives. This article will tell you how to mix and store your homemade dressings as well as the kitchen tools we like to use to do so.
Mixing Your Homemade Dressing
We like to have several salad dressings in the refrigerator to match our salads and our moods, dressings that we can reach for and set right on the table. To do so, you need a way to mix your dressings.
For this article, we made a ton of dressings mixing each with a “Measure and Mix Shaker”. We also sell salad genies. They have recipes with fill lines etched on the glass sides. Making these recipes is a cinch. For other recipes you need to either use a measuring cup or use a fine-tipped marker and a strip of tape to mark volumes. The Measure and Mix Shaker is convenient because it has the volume marks on the container.
Storing Your Homemade Salad Dressings
We stored the finished dressings in glass cruets. (Never store dressings in plastic; the plastic tends to absorb the flavors and oil and is hard to clean.) For making homemade salad dressing, not only will you need something to mix it in but several glass decanters for storing and serving, one for each type of dressing that you are storing.
How Long Will the Homemade Dressing Last?
Don’t make a lot of one kind of dressing. We find that a cup and a half is enough dressing. Often, we cut recipes we find in books in half to make smaller amounts.
Without preservatives and with fresh ingredients, you won’t want to keep them over a couple of weeks. You may even want to put a sticky note on the container with the date written on the note.
The Necessary Tools for Homemade Salad Dressing
Measure and Mix Shaker. It has fill marks for cups, ounces, and milliliters and a grid in the top to agitate the ingredients as it is shaken. It’s a great way to mix up dressings and drinks. It holds two cups. It is plastic and is not recommended for storing dressings.
Salad Dressing Genie. This is a simple glass decanter with marks etched on the sides for six different salad dressing recipes. Fill to the marks and shake. For other recipes, you will need to use a measuring cup or mark measures on the side of your genie. It is suitable for storing and holds eleven ounces.
Deluxe Salad Dressing Genie. This is a 12-ounce glass decanter with a blender. Twist the knob to mix your dressing.
Glass Cruets. This is a classy way to store and serve your dressings. The stoppers fit tight enough that you can shake the dressings before serving. Each holds 1 1/2 cups and is dishwasher safe.
