Italian Salad Dressing

I've been making some interesting salad dressings lately - I have a miso mustard one that is my new favorite.  But if I'm going to blog about it, let's figure out what the best option is - we'll start simple with Italian.

The store brand: Ken's Italian Dressing and Marinade

My recipe (adapted from allrecipes.com):
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon white sugar
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsely
1/8 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 cup vinegar (white, red wine, or balsamic)
2/3 cup olive oil

The rest is simple - combine everything and shake it up.  It's best to let it sit and soften all those dried herbs (or you could always use fresh to make it extra delicious).  I keep this out on the counter because the olive oil will solidify in the refrigerator, and then it's a pain.

So the comparison?  The storebought Italian that I purchased was just terrible.  It had NO herbs or seasonings, and tasted like oil, vinegar, and salt.  I have had lots of great bottled Italian dressings, but this is just not one of them.  Usually I think bottled Italian dressing is pretty good (although salty), but this time, mine was just better.

So the cost here really surprised me.  It cost more to make homemade dressing than to buy the bottle.  The biggest discrepency was the olive oil - the bottled version used vegetable oil, which would have cut my price considerably (The olive oil in my recipe was $1.49 of the total $1.99).

Ken's Italian Dressing and Marinade	16 oz	$3.55	$0.22
Homemade	8 oz	$1.99	$0.25

So although it is nice to make a fancy dressing youself, or to get the rich olive oil and herb taste, I just don't know if it's worth the effort.  There are lots of bottled dressings out there that are delicious, and when I buy them on sale, they cost much less than making it yourself.

Bake or Buy?  BUY!