The ordinary dressing consists of vinegar or lemon juice, and oil; another form is mayonnaise, where the yolk and sometimes the white of egg are used to hold the oil and vinegar together.
Another form is a cooked dressing which may be bottled and kept for a longer time than the French dressing or the mayonnaise.
Olive oil.—This is the most delicious oil for salad dressing when the flavor is liked and when it can be afforded.
Cottonseed and corn oil.—There are now in the market clarified cottonseed oil and corn oil that may be used in mayonnaise dressing, and the flavor is not unacceptable, and certainly superior to the poorer grades of olive oil which quite likely contain one of these oils as an adulterant. Cottonseed oil makes a better substitute for olive oil then does corn oil as it is at present refined.
Butter.—Butter may be used in boiled salad dressing for those who dislike the flavor of the oils.
The acids in dressing.—These may be either vinegar or lemon juice, and many people with whom the vinegar disagrees can eat a salad made with lemon juice. The acid should not be used in excess in any case; the best dressings do not give a distinctively acid taste.
Adjuncts.—Salt, mustard, cayenne pepper, paprika.
Fig. 67.—A cucumber salad. Courtesy of Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College.