How to Make Dry Italian Dressing Mix: Noreen’s Kitchen

http://www.noreenskitchen.com Greetings! I thought it would be fun to develop a recipe for an Italian salad dressing mix to replicate the type you can purchase at the store. Through trial and error I have come up with this blend. This is a very light and very tasty Italian dressing that you can use on your salad or as a marinade for grilled meats. You can also mix this with some sour cream and butter milk and make a lovely creamy Italian dressing.

One of the ingredients that I have used here is Xanthan gum. This is an ingredient commonly found in the listings of some of your favorite store bought products and while you may see it and express some concern that it is an artificial ingredient or preservative, you can rest your mind at ease. Xanthan gum is nothing more than a thickening agent used to increase the viscosity of liquids and help them stay blended, in this case to help marry oil and vinegar and water. You will commonly find this ingredient in many commercial salad dressings. This particular brand that I have used is Bob’s Red Mill. It is all natural as well as gluten free.

Xanthan gum is bacteria that is derived from natural sources such as corn or other organic matter and it is grown and then mixed with isopropyl alcohol then extracted, dried and ground into the powder that we are using today. Yes, it is a process, but this is still a natural option. The best part about Xanthan gum is that it can be used as a thickener in cold applications, such as this salad dressing. There are myriad ways to use this ingredient and I think we should all consider having it available in our pantry as a thickening option. You know me, I’m an ingredient junkie and this one is super great!

You can adjust this blend to suit your own tastes. If you don’t like a particular herb that I have used, simply omit it or increase one of the others that you like better. Make this your dressing mix.

This recipe will make between 6 and 7 recipes of dressing which will render almost 2 cups each. You can adjust the oil/vinegar ratio to suit your tastes as well. In the end, if you think the taste is right but the mixture is a bit too thick, add a bit more water. You will get it right and you will have a great homemade dressing.

You can find the full recipe on my website to print out for your own box or book.

I hope you try this and I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Eating!

My Kitchen and today I want to talk to you about something that would be considering additive it’s a thickening agent but it’s also a natural product and it’s called xanthan gum and we’re going to make a recipe using xanthan gum and this is damping gum it’s Bob’s Red

Mill is all-natural and you know when you see the ingredients on the side of a box and or your bread or or in salad dressing which is what we’re gonna make today you see xanthan gum sometimes we look at those big names and ingredients on the

Side of the box and we think oh that can’t possibly be an all-natural product but a little research reveals that xanthan gum is 100% natural it is derived from all natural products and it is a highly efficient thickening agent that I think everybody should consider having in their kitchen you can add

Xanthan gum to cold things to thicken them this increases the viscosity of a liquid that’s about halfway right away viscosity is awesome well what does viscosity mean okay Bob gasses no no nothing about gasses viscosity is that is it come fix something is that’s right okay

That is our science lesson for the day not really this is our science lesson for the day xanthan gum this I will warn you this bag is fairly expensive this bag is between seven and eight dollars depending where you get it if you get it at a health food store it’s probably

Gonna be a little bit more at my fancy-schmancy grocer and I think it was around $8 but you are only going to use 1 or 2 teaspoons in a recipe or today we’re going to use a tablespoon but we’re gonna use it in a mix that’s

Gonna make quite a bit of different up dressing so the one thing I got some information about xanthan gum simply because it’s one thing to say you should use this it’s really a great product but it’s another thing to help you understand exactly what it is

And how you can use it I am planning on making a gluten-free risen bread recipe and you need xanthan gum to do that and xanthan gum is gluten free in most cases this is a gluten free product um I’m not a virgin to gluten in any way shape or

Form and there are mixed feelings out there about gluten and the whole gluten allergy thing but you know there are people who suffer from gluten allergy there are people who suffer from celiac disease which is an allergy to wheat and they cannot eat wheat so you know

Anything that we can do to help learn from each other and help make maybe somebody else’s life a little easier and I make a lot of bread and I have a lot of people who write to me and say oh my goodness that looks so great I wish I

Could eat that but I have celiac disease or I’m gluten intolerant or whatever number of things you want to say so I want to include them in this party too so we’re all going to learn together right so why not so I I have the same

Thing gum and I have a few other ingredients but that’s another video we’re gonna do this to how the gluten free bread on the weekend but I have this information on xanthan gum and I’m just gonna read you a little bit about what it is it says Nana gum is a

Polysaccharide derived from the bacterial coat of Santha Mona’s campestris used as a food additive and a rheology modifier commonly used as a food thickening agent in salad dressings for example and as a stabilizer in cosmetic problems for example products for example to prevent ingredients from separating it is produced by the fermentation of

Host sucrose or lactose by the Xanthomonas campestris bacterium after a fermentation period the polysaccharide is precipitated yes yes yes from a growth medium with isopropyl alcohol dried and ground into a fine powder later it is added to a liquid medium to form the gum you sound like Sheldon one of the most

Remarkable properties of xanthan gum is its ability to produce a large increase in the viscosity of a liquid by adding a very small amount of the gum a very small quantity of gum in order of 1% in most foods it is used at a point 5

Percent ratio and can be added and can be used in lower concentrations so basically use anthing gum is a really excellent substitute for you know you can’t put cornstarch in salad dressings because it’s not gonna work xanthan gum basically helps marry oil and water it helps thicken things and it helps things

Not to separate so like you know when you buy your salad dressing in the grocery store which I wouldn’t buy because it has lots of crap in it but I don’t think xanthan gum is such a bad ingredient and you know it’s accessible to us now we can have this on a kitchen

Shelf when I open this job with this I’m gonna put it in a jar and I’m gonna go ahead and just keep it in a mason jars you look at them we’ll be good to go but today I have an Italian dry Italian dressing mix that I’m gonna show you how

To make that we’re gonna call good reasons dry salad dressing mix if you understand what that means because we’re referring to the dry salad dressing mix that you can buy on the grocery store shelf now the amount that we’re going to make is gonna make a lot of salad

Dressing the amount that you buy in the grocery store which miz has like a tablespoon of mix in that tiny little packet and can cost like a dollar 25 2.50 or more depending on where you shop then of course I know if you’ve coupons you can prom

We get it for free but this one you know exactly what’s going into it and you also know that there’s probably no wheat derivatives in it no lactose derivatives in it or anything like that so let’s get started I just thought that there’s a really interesting thing to go ahead and

Make fun our own because if you know several of you understand that I have these big containers of seasoning on hand all the time and I love it so we do that and Oh Samantha is an excellent way of using those and this daddy daddy okay

So we’re gonna start off and I just have one Bowl here and there is really no you know puff it measurement no so just we’re gonna use a tablespoon or just just as a ratio purpose so I’ve got two tablespoons of garlic powder okay you do the same of onion powder don’t worry

There’s lumps in there just break them up later okay we’re gonna do a tablespoon of sugar and of course this is all to taste I don’t like my Italian dressing all that sweet let’s do two tablespoons of dried oregano and if you would like to use Italian seasoning

Instead of all these separate spices go ahead throw in the equivalent you know a tablespoon there’s four tablespoons in a quarter of a cup so as far as the herbs go I would use a quarter of a cup of Italian seasoning and then I would continue to add the celery salt the

Garlic powder onion powder black pepper and Sarah so this here is basil and it’s brand-new I use a tablespoon of basil I’m gonna use two tablespoons of dry parsley what you hear in the background is Molly making Molly’s cooking supper for us okay I have some time and I’m going to

Only do about a half a tablespoon of time because time is very strong and it tends to be a little on the bitter side this is mrs. – I’d say two tablespoons since that’s about what went in the pot so like I said this is not brain surgery

It’s cooking I say that all the time let’s do some cracked black pepper a tablespoon of that and I’m gonna put about a half a taste tablespoon of sea salt they cook them all because we will abused it and I have celery salt hair which is something I

Don’t usually use but I’m gonna use a healthy teaspoon of celery salt and then I think I’m also gonna use a teaspoon of celery seed because I like it and for those of you who know me you know that I really love solar excuse me Thank You excuse me thank you

Wow pepper that is two secret or success what’s that sorry celery absolutely okay did I get everything in here everything but you can see the texture is very similar to um actually it’s very still it’s a wonder tablespoon no wonder nuggets of onion powder because I live in a humid area

And the last time I used my onion powder I actually had to break it apart while you think take a wooden spoon and stick it in the in the container and kind of pummel it into submission oh it smells so good now what what would I be if I

Didn’t make some Italian dressing and show you exactly what this is gonna look like when you make it I I’m just waking up and my hands are clean don’t forget to cut that up sweetheart okay all right and there is a formula you’re gonna mix

And I’m gonna get my my vinegar and my oil we’re gonna mix it together so we made half a cup of vinegar in the jar and this is a white wine vinegar so and oil and vinegar you always want to mix two to one so we’re gonna do a cup of oil

Hello brain part and the beauty part about this is you can make this to taste you don’t have to make this much at one time but you know what just about how much you’re gonna get if you buy a bottle of dressing in the right okay we’re gonna do quarter

Cup of water and I probably need to have a bigger bottle we go now what I’m gonna add is two tablespoons generous slice like this mix just like that and I think I have a lid don’t even okay now look at that perfect it is not separating I’m

Just gonna get it out and I’m gonna show you how to spoon just to see whew I purchased it from the grocery store look at that it’s really delicious come all you want to taste it it’s good huh it’s nice and white and it’s not overly seasoned but the good

Part about this you’re gonna make this I’m gonna let it sit Center frigerator for about a half an hour before you use it but look you’ve got about about a cup in three quarters in there I’m dressing maybe just a skosh more but chill that

And then you serve it on your salad or you can marinate some chicken in there baby delicious the other beauty part is that it’s free look at all this mix you have left you have a lot of mix left we use two tablespoons in there how much is

Left let’s see that’s one recipe two three four it’s about 6 there’s about 6 in the in the ball so 7 recipes of Italian dressing this would easily serve 4 5 6 people I mean you’re not supposed to drown your salad right huh not you’re not poster right so there you have it

Your own homemade dry Italian dressing mix very similar to the dressing mix you get in the grocery store except you made it yourself and you’re going to employ the use of stamping gum really turn it and you know what’s in it that’s exactly right what you don’t like

Oregano leave it out you like basil a little bit more add some extra you really like garlic throw some more in in fact throw some dehydrated garlic flakes in there or throw some hot red pepper flakes in there make it your own you can go anywhere with this do you

Know what else I have another recipe I want to share with you because we’re going to make our own Catalina dressing everybody loves Catalina dressing right make your own what like coupons like Catalina smell he’s addicted to coupons she’s like curling coupons Catalina coupons no not like Catalina coupons like

Catalina dressing so that’s how you make my time dressing dry time dressing mix I hope you try it I hope love it and until next time