Jam Jar Dressing

I love emptying jars in my fridge. I think any obsessive canner does! It means that there will soon be open real estate on the shelf. Of course, it will be taken up that quickly, but at least it makes me feel like I cleared something out. It feels like I’m accomplishing something, even though I’m really…not. You know that feeling? The other day was a high point in jar shuttling—two jars were nearly done at the same time, and they were companion items. (It’s the small things, right?) Apricot jam and Dijon mustard. I moved them front and center, planning to make a dressing out of them. Why do apricots and mustard go so well together? I don’t know, but they do.

What ratio do you use for a salad dressing? The standard one is three parts oil to one part vinegar or acid. I love Julia Child’s theory on dressings, her quote in Julia’s Kichen Wisdom is to use “proportions of a very dry martini, since you can always add more vinegar or lemon, but you can’t take it out.” I like a dressing that is mostly good olive oil with a tiny bit of acid and salt, just like Julia. Sometimes I just drizzle olive oil and add a squirt of lemon and a sprinkle of salt.

There was about a scant teaspoon of both the apricot jam and Dijon mustard left. I added one teaspoon of white wine vinegar to the jam and (after closing the jar) shook vigorously to get all the good bits off the sides of the jar. To the Dijon jar I added 1/3 of a cup of oil, and shook that until it was partially emulsified. Then I added the oil-mustard mixture to the apricot-vinegar mixture (only because I liked that jar better) and shook them all together. They came together quickly and made a thick, tangy dressing. Great on a salad, or for dipping, it was so thick!

I think a lot of us do this. Do you? Here’s some links to other folks doing the jam jar dressing:

Well Preserved

The Kitchn

Yes, even Rachel Ray