Category: Soups & Salads

The Great Vinaigrette Challenge

After weeks of preparation, the day of The Great Vinaigrette Challenge has arrived. Finally, we will find out which vinaigrette recipe is better – Julia Child’s Lemon-Oil Dressing or Jacques Pépin’s Vinaigrette in a Jar.

If you have not read our two preceding posts, here and here, now is the time to go back and review them. You will see why The Great Vinaigrette Challenge is so important to so many serious gourmands.

Come join me and the staff of the Serendipity Farmhouse Test Kitchen as we bring together outstanding recipes by two legendary chefs. We will place them in the spotlight. The distinguished Chef Luna will then put both recipes to the test and answer the important question. – Which vinaigrette is better, Julia’s or Jacques’s?

If you are truly a lover of great food, no matter how humble its place in a multi-course meal, The Great Vinaigrette Challenge will make your day.

Great Vinaigrette Challenge Background

Serendipity Farmhouse Test Kitchen

Allow me, first of all, to thank Monsieur Pierre LeChat for all his work on the two preceding posts. He provided the vital background and technical details you need to understand the importance of this challenge. Most importantly, he has shown you that, in the kitchen, “Two different paths can lead to equally fine results.”

Now, it is my turn to share with you how my staff and I organized and conducted The Great Vinaigrette Challenge.

Chef Luna – A Short Curriculum Vitae

Every food-related contest requires a qualified and unbiased judge. The Serendipity Farmhouse test kitchen was most fortunate to have our long-time associate, Chef Luna, volunteer for this duty.

Chef Luna has been cooking from a very early age. At first, she was self-taught, and her cooking style was that of great experimentation. Later on, she took on employment at the Try Thai Restaurant in Front Royal, Virginia. That is where she developed great skills in East Asian cuisines.

Chef Luna

From there, Chef Luna’s career took a very important turn. She was hired by “an award-winning chef trained at the Connecticut Culinary Institute” to work at Christendom College. Working under the mentorship of this highly qualified Executive Chef, her skills and breadth of knowledge have grown and matured.

Yes, our Test Kitchen had found Chef Luna. She would be the perfect judge for The Great Vinaigrette Challenge.

Let The Great Vinaigrette Challenge Begin

This was a blind test. Two identical tossed salads were arranged on the tasting table. One was tossed with Julia’s Lemon-Oil Dressing. The other was tossed with Jacques’s Vinaigrette in a Jar. Only my Hubby knew for sure which was which.

the great vinaigrette challenge

I spent some time with Chef Luna, and we reviewed Persnickety Pierre’s Five Criteria of Excellence. She was asked to place primary focus on the criterion of achieving fine results in taste and flavor. She had worked with Pierre before and embraced his cooking philosophy. Chef Luna declared that she was up to the task and ready to begin.

I had decided we would hold this once-in-a-lifetime event on neutral ground outside of Rappahannock County. A select audience viewed the tasting challenge. Some had come from over 90 miles away. – The room was totally silent as Chef Luna, using her signature chopsticks, took her first taste.

Throughout the tasting, Chef Luna meticulously recorded her impressions. She compared and contrasted the elements of taste and flavor of the two competing vinaigrettes. This chart contains just a few of her notes.

Salad Dressing ASalad Dressing B
Overall, it blends well with the salad.A bit lighter than Dressing A, though neither A nor B is overly heavy.
Flavor that complements the bitterness of the saladDoesn’t complement the salad as well as Dressing A
There are citrus notes, lemony.Also has slight citrus notes.
A garlic-like elementSaltier than Dressing A.
More vinegary.
Some of Chef Luna’s Tasting Notes

Chef Luna Determines the Winner

great vinaigrette challenge

Chef Luna spent just a bit over five minutes tasting, comparing, recording, and finally deciding. Without hesitation, she had decided on a winner. – – – It was Salad Dressing A!

Immediately, the entire audience rocked the room in a single voice with the question, “Whose recipe is Salad Dressing A?

I came to the front of the tasting table and began to make an announcement. But, as I started to speak, my Hubby began to gesticulate in an odd manner. He wanted to speak to me. I quietly stepped to the side of the room and conferred with my Hubby. He knew I didn’t want to get this wrong. So, he whispered in my ear. I thanked him and turned to face the anxious audience again. – – “It is my distinct pleasure to inform you that the winner of the Serendipity Farmhouse Test Kitchen Great Vinaigrette Challenge is … the winner is – Julia Child!

The audience jumped to their feet as Chef Luna invited them all up to the tasting table to sample from each of the salads. Some liked Salad Dressing A. Some thought Salad Dressing B was better. – Would the judge change her mind?

Summary

Yes, there was an official decision. And Chef Luna had no reservations. She would not second guess herself. Her decision will stand.

As Pierre LeChat had said, “Two different paths can lead to equally fine results.” So, even though there is an official decision, you should hold a vinaigrette challenge in your own home. Let your family decide the question: Which vinaigrette is better, Julia’s or Jacques’s? Both recipes are listed below.

If you’ve enjoyed this series of posts, please make a comment below. If you want to have some more light-hearted culinary adventures, join up and be an e-mail follower.

make a vinaigrette.

Julia's Lemon-Oil Dressing

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Tbs minced shallots or scallions
  • 2 tsp Dijon-style prepared mustard
  • 2 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • About ¼ tsp salt or more to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • ½ cup excellent olive oil

Instructions
 

  • Put the minced scallions, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small mixing bowl and whisk until well blended.
  • Pour in the oil slowly, in droplets at first, and then in a thin stream, whisking constantly until the oil has been completely emulsified and the dressing has thickened.
  • Taste and adjust the seasonings.
  • Use immediately; if the dressing separates while standing, whisk to blend.

Video

Jacques's Vinaigrette in a Jar

Equipment

  • A 12-ounce glass jar with a screwtop lid

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tsp chopped garlic
  • 2 Tbs Dijon-style mustard
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • ¼ cup red- or white-wine vinegar
  • 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil or peanut oil or a mixture of the two

Instructions
 

  • Put all the ingredients in the jar, screw on the lid, and shake very well.
  • Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more oil or vinegar, as you like.
  • Store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks, and shake to blend before using.

Video

Jacques Pépin’s Vinaigrette – Is It Better than Julia’s?

You want to make a vinaigrette for your guests. It has to be just right, but you’re running out of time. What do you do?

In our last post, we saw how Julia Child makes her Lemon-Oil Dressing. Now, you are going to learn how Jacques Pépin makes his classic Vinaigrette in a Jar. Jacques takes a different approach than does Julia. Although he uses many of the same ingredients, the proportions for those ingredients bear no resemblance to Julia’s.

Come join the staff of the soon-to-be-world-famous Serendipity Farmhouse Test Kitchen as we recreate Jacques’s recipe. In this second post of a three-part series, we focus on development of superior taste and flavor. The reason for this will become abundantly clear in our next post. It will be then that Chef Luna, in a blind test, will answer for us this most important question.

Which vinaigrette is better? – Jacques’s or Julia’s?

Continue reading “Jacques Pépin’s Vinaigrette – Is It Better than Julia’s?”

Julia Child’s Vinaigrette – Is It Better than Jacques’s?

So simple – Make a vinaigrette for that salad you’ll serve your guests tonight. So complex – Make a vinaigrette that isn’t too acidic or too bland. Where do you begin?

Julia Child and Jacques Pépin each make flavor-filled vinaigrettes. These legendary chefs use almost identical ingredients. But that is where the similarities end. In their characteristic ways, they vary ingredient proportions to create vinaigrettes to match their unique trademark styles.

Come join the staff of the soon-to-be-world-famous Serendipity Farmhouse Test Kitchen as we recreate both recipes. We will describe for you the magic that is taking place when making a vinaigrette. Then we will place two salads, each with their respective dressings in front of our uniquely qualified guest chef. – She will answer for us this most important question.

Which vinaigrette is better? – Julia’s or Jacques’s?

Jump to Recipe

Great Vinaigrette Challenge Background

farmhouse cuisine

Our Test Kitchen staff frequently watches episodes from the old PBS series Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. Even better, dear friends gifted us with the book that accompanied the series – Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home: A Cookbook. The series and the book prove one very important axiom we live by in our Test Kitchen:

Two different paths can lead to equally fine results.

We decided to demonstrate how this can be. That decision is how the Great Vinaigrette Challenge came into being. We decided to use two simple recipes presented by Julia and Jacques on pages 114-115 of their cookbook. Our task was to show how the artistic choices of two great chefs would follow two different paths. And, despite use of individualized techniques, both Julia and Jacques would achieve equally fine results.

But that was not enough! We decided to go one step further. Though not a contest and certainly not a rivalry, we decided to bring in an unbiased authority to evaluate and decide:

Which vinaigrette is better? – Julia’s or Jacques’s?

A Three Step Challenge

We decided to divide the Great Vinaigrette Challenge into three steps, each with its own post:

1 – Julia Child’s Vinaigrette – Is It Better than Jacques’s? This post describes the challenge and presents the recipe for Julia’s Lemon-Oil Dressing

2 – Jacques Pépin’s Vinaigrette – Is it Better than Julia’s? This post presents the recipe for Jacques’s Vinaigrette in a Jar and compares and contrasts it with Julia’s recipe.

3 – The Great Vinaigrette Challenge This post highlights the tasting, evaluating and judging of the two competing vinaigrettes. Don’t miss this one. You may be surprised by the results.

What’s a Vinaigrette?

Were you impatient? Have you already clicked the “Jump to Recipe” button? Did you read through Julia’s list of ingredients? I’ll bet you were surprised to find that vinegar was not on the list.

Well, I can understand your impatience and why you jumped ahead. But now that you are back with me, I will share a simple truth with you. There is no single formula for a vinaigrette. – Yes, a vinaigrette should have an acidic component, but lemon juice is often used instead of vinegar. And there are a host of other variable ingredients as well. And that illustrates once again the Serendipity Farmhouse Test Kitchen axiom:

Two different paths can lead to equally fine results.

Julia’s Lemon-Oil Dressing

Just about the time you come to an understanding of a culinary term, somebody throws a new one at you. All along, we’ve talked about Julia and Jacques and their vinaigrettes. So, why does the cookbook call Julia’s Lemon-Oil recipe a “dressing”? – Simple, all vinaigrettes are dressings, but not all dressings are vinaigrettes.

Julia Child found it worthwhile “to have a simple, standard dressing for everyday salads,” something that can be prepared in a moment’s notice. That was how she thought of her Lemon-Oil Dressing.

Persnickety Pierre’s Criteria of Excellence

There is no need to spend much time discussing how my Criteria of Excellence apply to this simple vinaigrette. It will suffice to note that, if Julia thought that this recipe is one that “you can whip up in a minute,” it should present no challenge to even the most junior chef.

There is a word of caution here. Selection of good-quality ingredients is an ever-important factor in achieving the fine results in taste and flavor you are seeking.

Summary

Now, you have learned that every good chef needs a back pocket vinaigrette recipe. Even Julia Child and Jacques Pépin have their go-to recipes. The basic ingredients are generally easy to find and easy to use. You can vary the basic recipes by changing ingredient proportions and adding herbs and spices.

Try out the recipe below and see how Julia does it. Our next post will give you the opportunity to make a vinaigrette the way Jacques does.

Once you’ve tried out both recipes, you will have accomplished two things. First, you will know how to make a vinaigrette. Second, you’ll be able to sit right alongside our highly qualified guest chef and make your own judgement:

Which vinaigrette is better? – Julia’s or Jacques’s?

make a vinaigrette.

Julia's Lemon-Oil Dressing

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Tbs minced shallots or scallions
  • 2 tsp Dijon-style prepared mustard
  • 2 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • About ¼ tsp salt or more to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • ½ cup excellent olive oil

Instructions
 

  • Put the minced scallions, mustard, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a small mixing bowl and whisk until well blended.
  • Pour in the oil slowly, in droplets at first, and then in a thin stream, whisking constantly until the oil has been completely emulsified and the dressing has thickened.
  • Taste and adjust the seasonings.
  • Use immediately; if the dressing separates while standing, whisk to blend.

Video