vinegar emulsified.
I set up one last experiment, this time dressing two 1-
ounce portions of salad greens side by side. The first was
dressed with a homogenized mixture of 1 tablespoon olive
oil, 1 teaspoon vinegar, and ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard. The
second was dressed with just the oil and vinegar. After
tossing the greens, I immediately placed each batch inside a
funnel set over a small glass to catch any drippings.
Draining salad greens in a funnel allows us to see the
difference between a properly emulsified vinaigrette and a
poor one.Almost immediately, the nonmustardy batch started
dripping a steady trickle of vinegar into the glass, while the
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
glass had shed at most a dozen drops.
The results were irrefutable: if you don’t emulsify your
vinaigrette, you end up with a pile of leaves wilting in oil