FOOD NEWS
For Thick And Silky Salad Dressings, Just Add Ice
By Carly Weaver
A divine salad dressing requires a certain level of thoughtfulness when balancing out different textures and properly proportioning the ingredients to ensure an ideal combination of flavors. A good dressing should be well-balanced, tasty, and silkily textured, and all you need to achieve that is a drop in temperature, or, in other words, a few ice cubes.
Executive chef Hernan Melendez of California's Valley Kitchen told People his top tip for better salad dressing is to add a couple of ice cubes while blending ingredients. "The quick change in temperature makes the mixture bind, and as a result, you get a thick, silky dressing," the gourmand noted.
The cold temperature of the ice helps emulsify the dressing and keeps the liquids from separating, helping the dressing remain smooth and creamy long after it leaves the blender. The trick also works with vinaigrettes or other salad dressings, so you can shake your ingredients with an ice cube to get that same chilled, blended texture, and remove the cube before serving.