Mini Whisks Will Take Your Salad Dressing to a Whole New Level
One of the my favorite things I own is a mini whisk, though I actually own two and love them both equally. I know what you’re thinking: a mini whisk, which typically ranges from 5 to 10 inches in length, sounds pretty useless. Granted, I keep one of my two mini whisks on a keychain for purely decorative reasons. The other, however, is the key to perfect salad dressing, and that is a big deal for me.
Salad days are here again, and this time you're going to nail it. With a bowl. A really, really big bowl.
I have been obsessed with salad dressing since I was a 9-year-old hypochondriac who believed that eating mixed greens at dinner every night would prevent me from throwing up, a thought that seemed scarier than dying. The ingredients in my family’s pantry limited our salad dressing to a simple balsamic or red wine vinaigrette with olive oil and Dijon mustard—and my mom typically just poured these into a jar and shook ‘em all together. I did not like this. I wanted the smooth and creamy dressing that I had only ever tasted outside of my mother’s kitchen.
I didn’t discover how to make that salad dressing until ten years later, when I read Heartburn by Nora Ephron. Heartburn is an autobiographical story about heartbreak that weaves food so well into the plot that you invariably come away with a whole batch of recipes to try out. One of the recipes Ephron writes about is for vinaigrette: mix two tablespoons Grey Poupon mustard with two tablespoons red wine vinegar, then, whisking constantly with a fork, slowly add 6 tablespoons of olive oil. What I learned is that the trick to creamy vinaigrette isn’t in the ingredients but the way they’re mixed together: slowly incorporating the oil creates a dressing that is emulsified, and as smooth as 9-year-old me could dream of.
This is where my mini whisk comes into play. I found that while following the Ephron method for vinaigrette, a fork worked fine, but a mini whisk, which, if I remember correctly, my brother-in-law first told me about, yielded a creamier consistency. The mini whisk does a better job of emulsifying the oil, vinegar, and mustard than a fork, and it doesn’t make the dressing fly out of the bowl and onto the counter (and my shirt) either. I can’t remember who got it first—my brother-in-law or me—but we both use a mini whisk to make salad dressing now, which is a relief as I still believe in eating salad with dinner every night, and I know I can get that creamy vinaigrette when I eat at his and my sister’s apartment for dinner. My mom, unfortunately, still uses a jar.
I ended up putting a second whisk on my keychain because they’re sold in packs of two (and four, and ten!) on Amazon, and they’re just so darn cheap and cute that I couldn’t resist. I have fallen in love with them all over again while writing this, and I plan to buy a pack and distribute them to anyone whose salad I believe could benefit from a silky, rich vinaigrette.
Honbay Mini Wire Kitchen Whisks
$6.00, Amazon
UPKOCH Stainless Steel Whisk with Wood Handle, size small
$10.00, Amazon
Originally Appeared on Epicurious
