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Salad dressing mystery

post #1 of 6
5/10/05 at 8:08pm
Thread Starter 
My mom has been making this dressing "Tropics Dressing" for decades and is puzzled because for the first time in 40 years, it's separating! She insists all the ingredients are the same as always and she didn't use any odd brands either. The basic ingredients are catsup, mayo, veg. (canola) oil, celery seed, sugar, dry mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, lemon juice. Which of these ingredients do you suppose is the culprit? I thought perhaps Best Foods Mayonnaise changed their ingredients or something along that line. Or if she perhaps forgot an ingredient, which would be responsible for emulsifying?

Thank you very much for your help!

Aloha,
Colleen
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post #2 of 6
5/11/05 at 5:55am
There are a number of possibilities, any of which could eventually separate this emulsion:

1) time. Left long enough, this dressing, even with the mustard will separate.

2) temperature. If you put it in too cold a refrigerator, (closer to freezing), it's splitsville.

3) over-agitation. Too vigorous a stirring and the unfiying properties of mixing will backfire.

4) adding the oil too quickly at the beginning will form an unstable emulsion.

5) adding all of the acid at the beginning will also form an unstable emulsion.

See my article on emulsions here on Cheftalk: http://www.cheftalk.com/content/disp...2&type=article

Mark
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post #3 of 6
5/11/05 at 3:32pm
I didn't know canola oil had been around for 40 years. It used to be solely an industrial oil used in soap, rubber, and gives the glossy look on magazine pages.

BTW: i won't eat it because it is from the rape (rapeseed) plant which is so toxic that bugs won't even eat it. It is from the same family as mustard and was used to produce the highly toxic mustard gas used in WWI. It used to be fed to sheep in England, and was found to produce scrappie. Since it was banned in 1991, scappie has literally disappeared in English sheep.

doc
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post #4 of 6
5/11/05 at 5:02pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks!

Thanks for the replies!

BTW Doc, she didn't use Canola for 40 years, just the past few years. My point is that she claims she didn't use anything different from usual and has been doing this recipe for 40 years.

Aloha,
Colleen
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post #5 of 6
5/16/05 at 11:22am
It is the acid, if she puts too much lemon juice it will not emulisfy because the acid, although stable it can only hold for a short period if she over adds it it cause it to seperate, that is why a vingrette is broken and you have to aggetate it to get it to emlusify, my advice is only use a drop of the acid and u have to emulisfiers in there the mayo and the mustard, it should be fine,
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post #6 of 6
5/16/05 at 6:36pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you Chef Adrian, I will tell her all these ideas.
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