 A sandwich topped with Catalina French dressing | |
| Type | Salad dressing |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
| Main ingredients | Oil, vinegar, sugar, tomatoes, paprika |
French dressing is a creamy dressing in American cuisine that varies in color from pale orange to bright red.
French dressing is made of oil, vinegar, sugar, and other flavorings, with the coloring derived from tomato and often paprika. It exists on a spectrum between Russian and Catalina dressing. French dressing is generally pale orange and creamy, while Catalina French dressing is bright red and less creamy. [1] On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it is a common practice to dip pizza in Catalina French dressing. [2]
Common brands of French dressing in the United States include Annie's, Bernstein's, Dorothy Lynch, Heinz, Ken's, Kraft, Newman's Own, Marzetti, and Wish-Bone.
At least in Canada, Kraft's "French" is a paprika & mustard dressing without tomatoes, whereas this both "Catalina" and "Russian" are tomato & onion dressings without paprika. The first two also have garlic juice. Kraft's "Catalina" and "Russian" further differ by the use of corn starch vs molasses. [3]
In the nineteenth century, French dressing was synonymous with vinaigrette, which is still the definition used by the American professional culinary industry. [4] [5] [6] Starting in the early twentieth century, American recipes for French dressing often added other flavorings to the vinaigrette, including paprika, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, onion juice, sugar, and Tabasco sauce, but kept the name. [7] [8] By the 1920s, bottled French dressing was being sold as "Milani's 1890 French Dressing", but it is not clear whether it included ketchup at the time.[ better source needed ] [9] The modern version is sweet and colored orange-to-red from the use of paprika and tomatoes. [10]
In the United States, French dressing was regulated by federal standards. [11] [12] Between 1950 and 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulated French dressing to a standard with strict requirements of vegetable oil, vinegar, lemon or lime juice, salt, sugar, tomato paste or puree, and selected spices. On January 12, 2022, the FDA revoked the standard of identity and in the U.S. the ingredients can be at the choice of the manufacturer. [13]
In Canada, the Food and Drug Regulations of the Foods and Drugs Act state that French dressing must be prepared using a combination of vegetable oil and vinegar or lemon juice and the final product must contain at least 35 percent vegetable oil. [14]
Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, and/or salts, intended to enhance a particular flavour.
A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavour, to enhance the flavour, or to complement the dish.
A salad dressing is a sauce for salads. Used on virtually all leafy salads, dressings may also be used in making salads of beans, noodle or pasta salads and antipasti, and forms of potato salad.
Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. "Ketchup" now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes for various different varieties of ketchup contained mushrooms, oysters, mussels, egg whites, grapes, or walnuts, among other ingredients.
Russian dressing is a piquant American salad dressing consisting of mayonnaise, ketchup, and other ingredients.
Coleslaw or cole slaw, also known simply as slaw, is a side dish consisting primarily of finely shredded raw cabbage with a salad dressing or condiment, commonly either vinaigrette or mayonnaise. This dish originated in the Netherlands in the 18th century. Coleslaw prepared with vinaigrette may benefit from the long lifespan granted by pickling.
Rémoulade is a cold sauce. Although similar to tartar sauce, it is often more yellowish, sometimes flavored with curry, and often contains chopped pickles or piccalilli. It can also contain horseradish, paprika, anchovies, capers and a host of other items.
Adobo or adobar is the immersion of food in a stock composed variously of paprika, oregano, salt, garlic, and vinegar to preserve and enhance its flavor. The Portuguese variant is known as carne de vinha d'alhos. The practice, native to Iberia, was widely adopted in Latin America, as well as Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia.
A dip or dip sauce is a common condiment for many types of food. Dips are used to add flavor or texture to a food, such as pita bread, dumplings, crackers, chopped raw vegetables, fruits, seafood, cubed pieces of meat and cheese, potato chips, tortilla chips, falafel, and sometimes even whole sandwiches in the case of jus. Unlike other sauces, instead of applying the sauce to the food, the food is typically placed or dipped into the sauce.
In American cuisine, Italian dressing is a vinaigrette-type salad dressing that consists of water, vinegar or lemon juice, vegetable oil, chopped bell peppers, sugar or corn syrup, herbs and spices and sometimes onion and garlic.
Chili sauce and chili paste are condiments prepared with chili peppers.
Barbecue sauce is a sauce used as a marinade, basting, condiment, or topping for meat cooked in the barbecue cooking style, including pork, beef, and chicken. It is a ubiquitous condiment in the Southern United States and is used on many other foods as well.
Vinaigrette is made by mixing an edible oil with a mild acid such as vinegar or lemon juice. The mixture can be enhanced with salt, herbs and/or spices. It is used most commonly as a salad dressing, but can also be used as a marinade. Traditionally, a vinaigrette consists of 3 parts oil and 1 part vinegar mixed into a stable emulsion, but the term is also applied to mixtures with different proportions and to unstable emulsions which last only a short time before separating into layered oil and vinegar phases.
Many cuisines feature eggplant salads and appetizers.
Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant.
Salad dressings | ||
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| Condiments |  | |
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