On 7/15/2022 at 6:38 PM, Mustang said:

 

I'd like to try that.

1.  Red French / Catalina is my favorite.

2.  Honey Mustard is underrated on a salad, especially Rafferty's version.  That said, their house dressing is a Hot Bacon / Honey Mustard that I'm not a fan of.

3.  Italian, especially homemade at an Italian restaurant, is perfectly acceptable.

4.  Raspberry Vinaigrette is often a solid option, depending on the spot.  Although I don't love Champagne Vinaigrette when it is an option.

5.  Thousand Island can be okay, but I find them hit or miss.

Ranch / Bleu Cheese are only for dipping veggies or wings into, I don't want them slathered on my salad.

Just now, The Double Deuce said:

1.  Red French / Catalina is my favorite.  Additionally, Walt's Hitching Post's house dressing, Tomato Garlic, is top-shelf, no-dust.

2.  Honey Mustard is underrated on a salad, especially Rafferty's version.  That said, their house dressing is a Hot Bacon / Honey Mustard that I'm not a fan of.

3.  Italian, especially homemade at an Italian restaurant, is perfectly acceptable.

4.  Raspberry Vinaigrette is often a solid option, depending on the spot.  Although I don't love Champagne Vinaigrette when it is an option.

5.  Thousand Island can be okay, but I find them hit or miss.

Ranch / Bleu Cheese are only for dipping veggies or wings into, I don't want them slathered on my salad.

Sorry, meant to edit, so had to add the Walt's Tomato Garlic into the mix as french-like.  Their house dressing is amazing.

1000 Island is my favorite, but a good homemade ranch is good too.

On 7/20/2022 at 7:46 AM, Beechwoodfan said:

1000 Island is my favorite, but a good homemade ranch is good too.

Thousand island is tough to beat. Love a nice wedge salad with it. 

On 7/10/2022 at 9:08 AM, swamprat said:

Salt and pepper with a splash of olive oil. 

 

Squeeze a couple of lemons on top of that oil, salt, and pepper. It's really good.

On 7/8/2022 at 12:56 PM, theguru said:

I love ranch but have you ever tried fat free ranch, I think it is terrible. 

On 7/8/2022 at 2:07 PM, TheDeuce said:

Yep, I agree. Fat Free Ranch is a no-go for me. 

We have salad with dinner probably 4 or 5 nights a week, so we have almost an entire shelf on the refrigerator door dedicated just to salad dressings, lol.

Ranch is my favorite and my go-to. The full-fat 'unleaded' version is obviously the best....and I'm actually a sucker for the ranch dressing that Jet's Pizza sells. It's their own recipe, and you can buy it from the stores by the bottle if you request it. I despise fat free ranch, but I don't mind Kraft Light Ranch (theirs is the only light ranch I've found that I actually can stomach), but it's low-fat rather than fat free....that's usually what we have in the fridge. All Kroger brand ranch dressing is straight garbage.

I definitely like Ceasar dressing too. Newman's Own and Ken's Steak House are my favorites. Ken's Steak House has a Light Creamy Ceasar that rocks my socks off.

For a change up I'll go with LaRosa's creamy garlic sometimes. And sometimes at Skyline Chili I'll throw in a curveball and get their grilled chicken Greek salad...they have a fantastic Greek dressing if you like a really good if you like a vinegary zip on your salad...and then add in the chicken, feta cheese, banana peppers, chickpeas, and kalamata olives and you're really in business. You can buy Skyline's greek dressing at Kroger stores around the Cincinnati area actually.

I used to like Italian, but I kinda burnt myself out on it. I do still regularly use Wishbone Robusto Italian for marinating boneless chicken for the grill and sometimes to marinade steak kebabs, though.

And if I'm in the mood for balsamic dressing, I always make my own. You've got my word that if you like balsamic dressing, you'll like this:

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1-1/2 to 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic paste (optional)....you can substitute 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder if you make a couple of hours before and give the garlic powder time to hydrate and soak into the liquids.

Every rare now and then if I'm feeling squirrely I want a really simple salad made with Japanese ginger dressing - the kind you get when you go out for hibachi. The salad is almost exclusively iceberg or butter lettuce, with a little grated carrot and maybe with some wafer-thin radish slices, and then they put this really great ginger dressing on it. It's gingery, and it's tangy from rice vinegar, and it has a little bit of ground peanut in it for texture and added umami. Grocery stores usually have it in with the perishable refrigerated dressings, usually near the produce section. Makoto is the brand I see most often.

On 7/18/2022 at 6:08 AM, OlDog75 said:

One of my favorites is the Good Seasons Italian dressing my wife makes up for us.

That's the best Italian dressing to have at home by a landslide. You buy the dry seasoning mix and add in the your own vinegar, oil, and water up to the little lines indicated on the bottle. Growing up, I think about every one of my friends' houses had a Good Seasons salad dressing cruet in the fridge most of the time. I know my house did...and I've got one in my pantry.

Ever tried their Greek dressing? It's really solid. I like their garlic & herb dressing a lot too....that makes a fantastic marinade for grilling, as does the Italian.

I'll give most any salad dressing a try once or twice, but even with the laundry list in the post above, I'm kinda picky.

Sweet Vidalia Onion, honey mustard, dill yogurt dressing, acavado herb, green goddess, bleu cheese...they're all fine, but I usually end up tossing the bottle because it gets too old before I finish it. I think honey mustard and especially bleu cheese dressings both make better dipping sauces than salad dressings.

My parents were especially particular to French/Catalina, and Thousand Island/Russian, and I can't stand ANY of those on salad. You can dump French and Calatina straight down the toilet as far as I'm concerned. And I don't have any use for Thousand Island or Russian dressing unless they're on a reuben sandwich...in which case, yes please.

Almost 4am now. Anybody else want a salad?