[Sca-cooks] oil & vinegar dressings

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Phillipa
>Question:
>My cooking oils are kept on the pantry shelf.
>My vinegars are kept on the pantry shelf.
>
>Why do store-bought vinaigrettes have to be refrigerated?

I keep my oils, except olive, in the refrigerator. Oils left in the 
cupboard go rancid more quickly than many people notice. I'm fairly 
sensitive to rancid oil - a friend kept his on his counter next to 
his stove - i pointed out that it was rancid (and it was) but he was 
so used to the smell that he didn't believe me.

Commercial salad dressings, such as that vinaigrette, say to keep 
refrigerated because they, too, will go rancid if left out.

Olive oil is tricky. In the fridge it partially solidifies, but left 
out it will go rancid, although in my experience it seems to take 
longer than ordinary vegetable oils. So i try to keep it in the 
coolest darkest spot in my kitchen. Unfortunately for the olive oil, 
my current kitchen has a long southern exposure - it's the warmest 
room in my house. In the winter sometimes i read sitting on the floor 
in front of the refrigerator, where the warm air is blowing out from 
underneath.

In my experience, commercial "supermarket" type oils get rancid 
faster than cold pressed oils because they've already been heated up 
in the processing, but maybe i'm mistaken. I haven't done a 
controlled study.

>Does my homemade oil+vinegar dressing have to be refrigerated or can I just
>keep it on the kitchen table? (air temp around 68 degrees F) and not end up
>poisoning myself..
>
>(I ask this because I just took my homemade oil-vinegar dressing out of the
>fridge and the oil has solidified.)

Again, salad dressing made with oil should be refrigerated to keep it 
from going rancid. Not only does rancid oil taste unpleasant, at 
least to me, but it does have some negative health ramifications, 
although it won't poison you.

I would assume your dressing solidified because you used olive oil. 
I'd suggest leaving it out until it liquifies, using it, and 
returning it to the fridge.

Anahita