The Difference Between Sauce and Dressing [Video]

Culinary terms can be confusing, but that doesn’t mean you should rely on artificial intelligence to help figure things out, as the internet found out this week. When asked the difference between sauce and dressing, the answer became a popular meme with a frightening answer: “Sauces add flavor and texture to dishes, while dressings are used to protect wounds.”

Technically, this response is correct, even if the photo next to this explanation shows not a length of gauze, but what appears to be a creamy Caesar dressing, with a note that the standard serving size for salad dressing is two tablespoons.

Sauces are liquid accompaniments served with food to add flavor and enhance their texture. And dressings do indeed protect wounds (even though in the Food & Wine world, we first think of dressings as thinner sauces, most often added to salads). To add to the confusion, the word dressingcan …