Addressing Dressing

The idea of using white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar when making a salad dressing has run into the usual brick wall. A long leisurely look along the shelves in the supermarket reveals almost without exception that all vinegar is imported. Italy seems to have a stranglehold on the vinegar available in supermarkets for the home consumer.

Vinegar produced in Australia? Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

I’m not happy about this state of affairs. I take myself off to the nearest Leo’s supermarket and start the process all over again. This time I hit pay-dirt in the form of Maggie Beer’s Aged Red Wine Vinegar. What a relief to be able to find an Australian product that allow me to make something as simple as salad dressing.

Hurrah for Maggie Beer.




The other alternative to vinegar is lemon juice. No problems here with lemon juice; lemons are readily available and the only drawback is if you are in a rush you have to juice the lemons. Life’s tough isn't it?

I am however, sorry that I can’t find a balsamic vinegar that is not a product of some other country, usually Italy. I quite like to use it as an alternative in salad dressing through the summer. And with strawberries, of course.


As for oil for the salad dressing. That’s easy and straightforward. Cobram Olive Oil is my choice. There are many varieties of home grown olive oil and nearly as many price variations. The Trash Palace Kitchen is not a place where price – although it may well reflect quality in many cases – is the criterion. As long I can stick with the most recent harvest, Cobram will be the basis of my salad dressings.


Simple. And time saving. No wandering along the supermarket aisles, looking at this type of vinegar and that type of vinegar and then having to make a decision.

Red wine vinegar at that supermarket, olive oil at the local supermarkets and lemons at any of the aforementioned.