Is there a home canning method to preserve salad dressing?

In the Ask Jackie section of Backwoods Home Magazine a reader asked if you could can salad dressing.  Jackie's answer wasn't really an answer, but more of an 'I'm sure you could but I don't know how to.'  Since Jackie doesn't know I thought that I would ask all of you.  Can you can homemade salad dressing? Is their only certain types of dressing that you can can?  Does anyone have a recipe? Has anyone tried this?

Why do you want to can dressing? Are you referring to a mayo or vinaigrette type? As none of the standard ingredients of either are particularly seasonal, I can't see the advantage when it's so fast to make fresh.

The story behind it was that the woman wanted to sell canned salad dressing with her greens at the farmers market.  I was thinking more along the lines of christmas gifts for family members.

I suppose it depends on the kind of dressing you want to can, but where I'm at I can get locally made olive oil and vinegar.  If you have that option you might want to go that route.

Salad dressings are typically built upon a base ingredient, or a few base ingredients.  Oil, oil and vinegar, oil and egg (mayo), sour cream, and cream cheese being the most common.  There are other bases, such as bacon fat or bean broth but these are not familiar to the mainstream consumer.

Non-dairy bases can be canned.  Use the Blue Book guidelines for meat in a pressure canner for your altitude.  Oil base and oil/vinegar will behave.  Oil and egg can give you some trouble.  If not completely emulsified the blend can separate, giving it a curdled look and affecting the flavor.  There is no saving it.

Once you get into dairy ingredients the problem is "breaking."  It looks curdled because that's what it does.  The milkfat separates from the rest of the ingredients and form a loose blob.  It can be done at home but will require you shake the bejesus out of the jar when it comes out and continue until it cools.  Its a lot of work.

The canning process can alter the dressing in other ways.  Fresh garlic in the fresh dressing will be mellowed after 90 minutes at 240 degrees. 

Might I suggest the other ingredients be packaged dry as a salad dressing mix?  Mylar bags with a sticker and instructions can go a long way towards keeping the finished product fresh and full flavored.

Clearly it can be done, you buy it at the store, however I'm not sure it is a good idea at home. An oil and vinegar salad dressing is probably the best option, and the dry ingredients could probably be mixed with the vinegar and sold like that, so long as the jar was clean and closed well, a little BWB treatment would probably be a good idea if there were much in the way of dry ingredients, then she could have instructions to add X tablespoons of the mix to Y tablespoons of EVOO and mix and pour on the greens.

Things like an organic herb and chili dry rub with sea salt might be a good spice blend, or sachets of homemade salsa and chili seasonings? i think those would be an easy sell. cheap to make, good shelf life, attach a little recipe folder that you can print yourself and fold/cut. also really only the cost of salt and the packaging. homemade tea blends from trees and plants also comes to mind. and minimal wokk/ cost again.

cheers

I would like to make homemade mayonnaise which uses raw eggs.  The recipe says to keep in the fridge for no more than 1 week.  Does anyone have any suggestions about preserving mayonnaise longer?  Can it be frozen?  Could it be canned?

Oil and vinegar based dressings will be fine if the aciditiy is the right level I believe. I was told by a shelf stable salad dressing guy that the key is to soak all non vinegar elements(not oil) into a vinegar bath briefly before putting them in the mix. This removes any bacteria, and since the base is vinegar you will be fine as long as everything else is steralized.

I tried making home made mayonnaise.  It turned out horrible.  Actually, the taste isn't bad, but the consistency is runny, and the oil separated from the rest.  I thought perhaps my little Oscar food processor is on its last leg and isn't blending fast enough?  or the room and the eggs were too cold?

How did folks make mayonnaise back in the days before electricity?  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Any advise would be appreciated.

I make homemade Mayo and the best way to do it is using a beverage hand blender. My recipe is simple.

Oil, eggs, salt, little yellow mustard. Oil has to be poured slowly.

I love it and I am picky about my Mayo. You may have to adjust a little the vinegar. Add more egg and slack up on vinegar if it is too strong.

Hello
I make various salad dressings for a restaurant group and would like to bottle for sell in grocery store.   How do I increase shelf life from current 60 days to 180 days?  I am looking for someone who has experience in doing this process or can direct me to a person

Thanks
Randytullos@sbcglobal.net

First things first, start with your state’s inspector.
Wisconsin’s it is under Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection. They would have all the answers from safety codes and licensing.
Selling from your place of business you have licensed now may be different. I know in Wisconsin to sell to businesses that are going to resell them rather than to business that just use them , you need a wholesale license and state inspected more often. They also would have all the info you would need.
  Good Luck with your adventure!

Bought gallon container of Cole slaw dressing . Can it be broken down in pint jars and be canned? How long is process time if water bath or pressure canning?