Salad dressing, cream & sauces
The perfect refinement of salads
You have certainly tasted salad leaves without any ingredients before - "boring" and "tasteless" describe the taste in this case accurately. Only when fat and acid as well as spices are added to the salad, does a salad obtain the desired flavor note: the actual salad flavor is emphasized, and furthermore it helps to utilize fat-soluble vitamins. The vinaigrette, which is the combination of vinegar and oil, can certainly be considered as the basic form of salad dressings. According to legend, the invention of the vinaigrette is due to the nobleman Chevalier D'Albignac, who had emigrated to London: towards the end of the 18th century, D'Albignac is said to have eaten in a fancy restaurant, when some gentlemen asked him if the French really knew how to prepare raw salad. Thereupon, Chevalier D'Albignac had vinegar, oil, salt and pepper brought to him to make a sauce for the salad. The gentlemen present reportedly tried raw salad with the vinaigrette and were enthusiastic about it. Since then, the vinaigrette has been called French dressing in England. The first cookbook with a recipe for vinaigrette is "Larousse Gastronomique", which was published in 1938. Apart from vinegar and oil, salt and pepper are the basis of every vinaigrette. The ratio of cooking oil to vinegar is usually three to one. The vinaigrette is often supplemented with various herbs and chopped shallots.
Of course, you can still mix a vinaigrette for your salad yourself. However, it is much easier to choose a product from our subcategory salad dressing. Product examples for a typical vinaigrette are Knorr Salad Dressing Balsamic and Kühne Dressing Balsamic. Both vinaigrettes contain balsamic vinegar, grape must, cooking oil and spices.
Salad dressings with dairy products
If you appreciate the taste of yogurt or cream, you will certainly often choose products such as Knorr Salad Dressing Yogurt Cucumber & Dill or Gut & Günstig Yogurt Dressing with Herbs. By the way, there are now many salad dressings that contain broth instead of oil. Broth has the advantage over oil that it is considerably lower in calories. Nevertheless, it also acts as a flavor carrier and helps to utilize fat-soluble vitamins. Since dairy products have acid in the form of lactic acid and fat in the form of milk fat, for example yogurt and sour cream are a very good base for a salad dressing. You have probably also been asked in a restaurant which salad dressing you would like to have over the salad. Italian Dressing, French Dressing and American Dressing are usually available. The Italian Dressing is a vinaigrette to which freshly pressed garlic, mild mustard, spices and chopped herbs are added. Although French Dressing actually finds its use as a synonym for a classic vinaigrette, it is now common to refer to a vinaigrette supplemented with mayonnaise and tomato paste as French Dressing. Finally, the American Dressing is characterized by the following ingredients: crème fraîche, yogurt, mustard, ketchup, lemon juice and herbs.
Conveniently, lactic acid and milk fat always form a natural emulsion, so an emulsifier can be dispensed with. Not least, the combination of mayonnaise and a dairy product ensures particularly creamy salad dressings. Do you like salads with a slightly acidic taste? Then your favorite is likely to be a salad dressing that contains yogurt. Products that contain buttermilk or sour cream as an ingredient are also suitable. In our shop, you will find, among other things, the Gut & Günstig Yogurt Dressing with Herbs and the Kühne Crème Fraîche Dressing. It is not uncommon for salad dressing manufacturers based on dairy products to add vinegar and/or lemon juice to emphasize the sour taste note. Fruit juice can certainly spare the addition of vinegar - especially when citrus fruit juice is used.
Special salads and dressings
Two salad dressings that come from America are also becoming increasingly popular in Germany: Thousand Island Dressing and Ranch Dressing. The first recipe for Thousand Island Dressing was published in 1912, since then numerous variations have been added. Typically, this dressing contains mayonnaise, ketchup, chili sauce, paprika powder as well as salt and pepper. Thousand Island Dressing is not only excellent as a salad dressing, but also as a seasoning sauce for burgers and sandwiches. There are some recipes that provide finely chopped green and red bell peppers as additional sauce ingredients. Ranch Dressing has its origin in a restaurant opened in California in 1954. The salad dressing, which contains mayonnaise, buttermilk, yogurt as well as chopped onions and garlic, has become one of the most popular salad dressings in the United States since the 1970s.
Undoubtedly, a very special salad is the Caesar Salad, which is also due to the American cuisine. The recipe for the salad was invented in 1924 by the owner of the restaurant Caesar's Place in Tijuana: Cesare Cardini combined romaine lettuce with a dressing made of vinegar, olive oil, egg, lemon juice, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and spices. Other ingredients were and still are anchovy fillets and capers. After all the ingredients for the dressing were chopped with a hand blender and the mixture was added to the salad leaves, the dish was rounded off with croutons toasted in garlic oil and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Would you like to eat a Caesar Salad, but preparing the dressing is too complicated for you? Simply order Kühne American Caesar Dressing - then all you need to add is romaine lettuce and croutons.
Crispy ingredients such as croutons
In general, small bread cubes or slices roasted in fat are referred to as croutons. They not only fit perfectly as a soup garnish, but also as an ingredient for salads. The French name "crouton" is derived from the word "croûte", which means "crust" or "rind". In the south of France, croutons are often served with warm meals. In Spain, the small crispy pieces of bread are frequently used as a side dish for vegetable soups. Apart from that, salads are increasingly supplemented with so-called toppings. These are both croutons and nuts, seeds and kernels. Product examples include Leimer Bon appétit Croutons unseasoned and Leimer Bon appétit Croutons with herbs. Alternatively, you can choose combinations of croutons and kernels or seeds: Knorr Salad Dressing Croutinos with sunflower seeds, Knorr Salad Dressing Croutinos with walnut & soy seeds and other varieties.
