Taste-Off: Sesame-ginger dressings, ranked from fresh and zesty to just odd

"Great sesame-ginger dressings start with fresh ingredients in just the right proportions. Those elements are blended into a rich, savory pour that's so flavor-dense that it turns plain food into something far more luscious and memorable. The best sesame dressings have intense toasted sesame flavor, lots of zesty ginger, a hint of sugar and an ample dash of salt."

"Differences between sesame-ginger dressings are vast. They range from pasty thick to watery thin and from bold and spicy to syrupy sweet. Some include egg yolk and soy, others incorporate nutritional yeast, fruit concentrates, alternative sweeteners or miso."

"Bad sesame-ginger dressings are watery, wimpy, oily or syrupy. The worst have so many additives that the flavors of ginger and sesame are all but lost."

Sesame and ginger create a craveable salad dressing combining salty, sweet, nutty, and spicy elements. While homemade versions can be delicious, store-bought options offer convenience with significant variation in texture, flavor intensity, and ingredients. A tasting of 14 brands revealed vast differences ranging from thick to watery consistency and bold to syrupy sweetness, with some incorporating egg yolk, soy, nutritional yeast, fruit concentrates, or miso. Price inconsistency across retailers makes purchasing challenging. Superior sesame-ginger dressings feature fresh ingredients in proper proportions creating rich, savory, flavor-dense blends that enhance plain foods. Inferior versions suffer from watery, wimpy, oily, or syrupy qualities with excessive additives that obscure ginger and sesame flavors.

Read at The Mercury News