Why Olive Oil Isn’t Always the Best Oil for Vinaigrette
If you get in the habit of reading bottle labels for store-bought salad dressings, including trendy ones, you’re unlikely to find olive oil on most ingredient lists. This is partly a matter of cost, but it’s also a matter of taste.
Olive oil, especially good olive oil, tastes quite rich. This makes it great for dipping bread or pouring over fried vegetables, but it doesn’t make it a fantastic base for salad dressing, especially if you’re trying to accentuate a different flavor. Olive oil simply echoes with other ingredients, drowning out other flavors and confusing the profile. (For example, the dressing for this breakfast came out horribly until I switched from olive oil to grape seed oil; olive oil and blood orange didn’t go well!)
Don’t get me wrong: it can be a great option for a simple lemon-garlic vinaigrette, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all salad dressing solution. Neutral flavored oils such as grape seeds, canola, or plain vegetables will serve you much better (although I prefer grape seeds). These mild oils aren’t fun on their own, but they do what olive oils can’t and allow other ingredients to shine. Aside from using them as a base, you can play with the ratios using a neutral oil to cut down on aromatic oils if you only want a hint of aroma in your vinaigrette. They can also help thin other fats that are solid at room temperature, such as bacon fat . Grape seed oil may not sound as sexy as olive oil, but sometimes you need to be bland and boring.