Perfect Vinaigrettes: Appetizers to Desserts [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Linda Dannenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 1999

Tossed with salad greens, drizzled over poached fish, pooled around a nest of steamed vegetables, marinating a roast rib or glossing a plateful of sliced potatoes, vinaigrettes can jazz up elementary foods. This book contains 60 vinaigrette recipes.'

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A great vinaigrette is a simple yet sublime component of countless appetizers, salads, main courses, and even some desserts. Tossed with salad greens, drizzled over warm poached fish, pooled around a nest of steamed vegetables, marinating a roast, or glossing a plateful of sliced potatoes, vinaigrette sauces jazz up the most elementary foods. At first glance one of the easiest things to accomplish in the kitchen-just a swirl of oil, vinegar, seasonings, and perhaps some herbs and mustard - the making of a good vinaigrette seems to be an elusive art, even for the most accomplished home cooks.

Perfect Vinaigrettes will unveil the mystery of making a good dressing, endowing home cooks with the confidence and the skills for turning out wonderful, memorable vinaigrettes for every meal. Here are sixty recipes, ranging from the most fundamental oil-and-vinegar or lemon-and-cream vinaigrettes to more complex sauces-a Piquant Parsley-Caper Vinaigrette for grilled, broiled, or braised meats; an Orange Vinaigrette for roast pork or barbecued chicken; a Black Olive, Herb, and Tomato Vinaigrette for grilled sea-bass; an Oolong Tea Vinaigrette for a water-melon and Roquefort salad; a Raspberry-Orange Vinaigrette for an elegant wild rice salad-many the creations of renowned chefs. Included among the tantalizing specialty vinaigrettes are Ariane Daguine's Dijon-Shallot Vinaigrette, to be served with a Gascony duck salad; Andr Soltner's tangy Lutce Vinaigrette, with a hint of onion and Tabasco; and three-star chef Pierre Gagnaire's Fruited Eggplant Sauce for prawns or lobster tails.

About the Author

Linda Dannenberg is the noted author of Alain Ducasse: Flavors of France, French Tarts, Paris Bistro Cooking, Paris Boulangerie-Ptisserie, and other books exploring French food, lifestyle and design. She writes frequently for The Wine Spectator, Town & Country, Victoria, and House Beautiful. Zeva Oelbaum is an accomplished still life and food photographer based in New York. She has photographed such books as The Vegetarian Table: India, Creole Flavors, Wild Fish & Game Cookbook, and The Cake Book, and contributes frequently to The New York Times and Metropolitan Home.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; illustrated edition edition (September 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556709439
• ISBN-13: 978-1556709432
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #982,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tired of Store Bought Dressings?, November 29, 1999

By 

N. Sahlas "FoodLover" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfect Vinaigrettes: Appetizers to Desserts (Hardcover)

"If you know how to prepare a vinaigrette, then you know how to cook" Stephanie Sedgwick quoted from "Perfect Vinaigrettes Appetizers to Desserts"

Although great vinaigrettes seem to be somewhat of a lost art (especially in today's world of pre-made dressings). Linda Dannenberg leads the way for any that are eager to learn the necessary techniques of making perfect vinaigrettes.

In her beautifully done book "Perfect Vinaigrettes Appetizers to Desserts" Dannenberg takes the mystery out of preparing perfect vinaigrettes by walking the reader step by step through the process. Broken down into easy to read sections the book is a great starter for the beginner cook or an excellent reference for the more advanced. Perfect Vinaigrettes is not at all overwhelming, in fact it is a fairly small book. I found that the recipes were very easy to follow, and the accompanying photography excellent.

There are many things that I like about this book, but what I liked best is the different stages it goes through in explaining to the reader how to prepare a truly great vinaigrette. In her introduction Dannenberg starts off by pointing out some of the philosophy behind making vinaigrettes and states that "something as simple as mixing oil, vinegar, and seasonings is often very difficult even for the best of cooks". Even though a vinaigrette has the potential for disaster, Dannenberg ensures you that all you need to know to create a perfect vinaigrette is elementary, the quality of your ingredients and the proportion.

Putting aside the philosophy of vinaigrettes, Dannenberg then goes into great detail describing the different components that make up a perfect vinaigrette. I found this to be an excellent section of the book, and aptly titled "The Vinaigrette Pantry". It is here that the reader will find such excellent information as to what purpose a particular ingredient serves, and recommended brands to use. An especially nice touch was the addition of an appendix (near the back of the book) of quality food purveyors where the reader can obtain the recommended brands.

The rest of the book is devoted primarily to the preparation and use of various types of vinaigrettes. Beginning with the most basic vinaigrettes, the book builds on this base throughout the book as it progresses towards the more advanced vinaigrettes. With over sixty excellent vinaigrette recipes through the book (many of the recipes are from top chefs from around the country) the book is an excellent resource for new vinaigrette ideas. Even if you don't feel very comfortable with the more advanced vinaigrettes, the beginning vinaigrettes will give you good base of simple vinaigrettes that you can try different variations with, and still achieve a great vinaigrette.

Perfect Vinaigrettes is an excellent book and offers a refreshing look at vinaigrettes, salads, and their preparation. If you are tired of the store bought dressings I highly recommend Linda Dannenberg's Perfect Vinaigrettes.

Review by Nicko Sahlas of
cheftalk
"A food lover's link to professional chefs"

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vinaigrettes - classical and not so classical, December 6, 2004

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perfect Vinaigrettes: Appetizers to Desserts (Hardcover)

This book concentrates on the basics of vinaigrettes - the fundamental ingredients, classical additions, techniques, adjusting for the food context. It also expands the class of vinaigrettes to include sauces with alternative acids, most often citrus, or alternative oils such as yogurt.

Recipes for vinaigrettes are provided for green salads, composed salads, vegetables, fish, meat and fruit. These recipes demonstrate the creative adaption of the fundamentals into actual finished foods. Most of the recipes are simple to cook even when creating complex flavors. The ingredients for most recipes are basic; a few more "exotic" recipes nudge the creativity of even the most accomplished cook.

This is an excellent book for a cook who wishes to thoroughly learn the basics in order to become a creative cook, confident of their own adaptations to particular ingredients and pairings.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Shouldn't a vinaigrette have vinegar?, October 2, 2002

By 

Scott Etter - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Perfect Vinaigrettes: Appetizers to Desserts (Hardcover)

Generally, this book does a good job covering the class of sauces having an acid component, but I think the author could have done a better job compiling recipes of true vinaigrettes. Of the 60 recipes in the book, fully one third don't have vinegar as an ingredient; these generally use citrus juice as their acid. That's all well and good if you're just looking for a tangy dressing, but these definitely are not vinaigrettes. And while this probably isn't much of a failing if you're not a vinaigrette purist, the book has a few other failings as well.

While most of the recipes are extremely simple, some are unnecessarily difficult to follow the first time through, and many of the ingredients are definitely beyond the pale of what is available at the average city market.

The author does seem to have a good sense of flavor and offers many useful tips for how to create an effective sauce, but overall the book could have done a better job with the topic.