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Define "salad"


Dave the Cook

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So I was talking to someone the other afternoon, and (as always, if you are talking to me) the subject of "what's for dinner?" came up. She said she was making a Greek salad.

When I was growing up, a Greek salad was lettuce -- usually iceberg -- and an assortment of cooked and/or marinated veg: olives, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, along with feta cheese. When I moved to Houston, this definition was expanded (thanks to the original incarnation of Pappadeaux's) to include shrimps and a few other Gulf-coast particulars: chiles, for example.

But that's not what she was making. When I asked her for a description, her list of ingredients started with bulgur -- in the end, it amounted to tabbouleh supplemented with extra tomatoes, cucumber and mint, Oh, and shrimps.

Okay, I guess. But then I started thinking about all the concoctions landing on our tables that have "salad" appended to a main descriptor: tuna salad, potato salad, pasta salad. And the others: Cobb salad, Salade Nicoise, chef's salad, Thai lime-coconut-shredded pork satay salad. Add any protein to any kind of lettuce and it's adopted: fried-chicken salad, flank-steak salad, lard-braised tofu salad.

And this bulgur thing.

Are all of those really salads? What makes them so?

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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I'm glad you asked this question. I remember when friends from China came to the US, they asked me what a salad was, and I gave them the usual answer: lettuce, tomato, onion, etc.

But then when we got to this, I couldn't explain what made this a "salad":

gallery_51814_6492_3694.jpg

Actually it was a conch and squid salad, but you get the idea. Hopefully, this thread will clear that up for me.

Edited by Batard (log)

"There's nothing like a pork belly to steady the nerves."

Fergus Henderson

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Well, as an EFL teacher, I get asked questions like this all the time. Let's look at three things that are a salad from your list:

tuna salad

cobb salad

greek salad

Of course, my first impulse is to answer: a salad has vegetables. But looking at tuna salad, if vegetables are present at all, they would be there in small quantities as a garnish or a textural contrast. All three items are mainly served cold, however, and are held together with some sort of dressing, so I would say that those are the most important qualities making something a salad. Salads can be served warm, but then aren't they usually billed as warm salads? Which would lead me to believe that most people expect a salad to be cold, and must be warned if this will not be the case.

Let's think of some more examples and see if this holds true.

Also: Don't the British call tuna and egg salad "Tuna Mayonnaise" and "Egg Mayonnaise"?

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Salads can be served warm, but then aren't they usually billed as warm salads?

Let's think of some more examples and see if this holds true.

German potato salad is served warm, but isn't billed as such. It has bacon/fat in it that gets unpleasant served cold.

"There's nothing like a pork belly to steady the nerves."

Fergus Henderson

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A variety of ingredients tossed in some sort of sauce, not normally hot?

By that definition, couldn't Gazpacho also be called a salad? Of is the important word there "tossed"?

Edited by Batard (log)

"There's nothing like a pork belly to steady the nerves."

Fergus Henderson

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I think it's important that the ingredients retain some of their individuality. (So gazpacho is out.) You should be able to identify the ingredients in a salad. Which is why I often take them to potluck dinners, so nobody has to ask me what's in the dish I brought.

I would define a salad as a combination of ingredients unified by a dressing. After that, anything goes. The ingredients may be cooked or raw. The salad may have vegetables, meat, starch (e.g., pasta or bread), seafood, or fruit in it. Dairy, too. Western salads may have cheese; an Indian salad or raita is based on yogurt. A salad may include fake food like Bac-O's. It may be tossed or arranged on a plate.

The salad may be served warm, room temp, or cold. I suppose a hot salad is possible, though right now I can't think of one. Indian salads may have hot oil dressings, or tadka, on them.

What an interesting question to ask, Dave.

Edited by djyee100 (log)
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. . . .

I would define a salad as a combination of ingredients unified by a dressing.

Then I guess we need to define "dressing"?

. . . .

The salad may be served warm, room temp, or cold. I suppose a hot salad is possible, though right now I can't think of one.

. . . .

I make a salad (I think it's a salad) that's served hot: grilled romaine, tomatoes and mushrooms that have been marinated in what amounts to a Caesar dressing. The dressing is concentrated so that the juices from the constituents dilute it to proper serving strength.

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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Okay, so cold is out, but we all still agree there should be some sort of dressing. Does a salad also need to have more than one main ingredient?

As for defining a dressing...

Some sort of sauce, usually comprising more than one ingredient, which can include vinegar, oil, and other seasonings?

It's helpful to think of things that aren't salads, and see what is true about them.

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Okay, so cold is out, but we all still agree there should be some sort of dressing. Does a salad also need to have more than one main ingredient?

As for defining a dressing...

Some sort of sauce, usually comprising more than one ingredient, which can include vinegar, oil, and other seasonings?

It's helpful to think of things that aren't salads, and see what is true about them.

I think chimichurri might be a useful example. In most versions, it contains the things we think of as comprising salad dressing: herbs, oil, acid. But it's usually considered a sauce. Is "dressing" defined existentially?

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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"Egg Mayonnaise"?

Yes, though I've always found "egg mayonnaise" to be a confusing description, mayonnaise being made from eggs and all. "Egg salad" follows the French "salade d'oeufs." Not that you ever know exactly what you're going to get when you order any of the above -- it could easily be potato salad with egg.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Okay, so cold is out, but we all still agree there should be some sort of dressing. Does a salad also need to have more than one main ingredient?

Is fruit salad a salad? We call it a salad but it has no vegetables nor a dressing. . .

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Interesting that some recent forum posts have enthused about salting your salad to bring out its flavours as it appears that the word itself comes from sal (latin for salt). So turns the wheel back on itself.

Etymologically speaking: "Salad, a term derived from the Latin sal (salt), which yielded the form salata, 'salted things' such as the raw vegetables eaten in classical times with a dressing of oil, vinegar or salt. The word turns up in Old French as salade and then in late 14th century English as salad or sallet."

---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 682)

Thank you to food timeline for the quote.

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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Interesting that some recent forum posts have enthused about salting your salad to bring out its flavours as it appears that the word itself comes from sal (latin for salt). So turns the wheel back on itself.

Etymologically speaking: "Salad, a term derived from the Latin sal (salt), which yielded the form salata, 'salted things' such as the raw vegetables eaten in classical times with a dressing of oil, vinegar or salt. The word turns up in Old French as salade and then in late 14th century English as salad or sallet."

---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford Univeristy Press:Oxford] 2nd edition, 2006 (p. 682)

Thank you to food timeline for the quote.

Thank you. I was just thinking of looking that up. I love etymology. Actually, I love any useless piece of knowledge. :P

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I don't think there is any meaningfully restrictive definition of "salad" at this point. Originally, it would have referred to salted and probably dressed vegetables as explained above. The OED has it's primary meaning as: "A cold dish of herbs or vegetables (e.g., lettuce, endive), usually uncooked and chopped up or sliced, to which is often added sliced hard-boiled egg, cold meat, fish, etc., the whole being seasoned with salt, pepper, oil and vinegar." The also give a secondary meaning of long standing, as figuratively and allusively referring to "a type of something mixed."

But it's easy to see how you could start with something cold that is mostly vegetables with some fish, and then over the years, end up with something cold that is mostly fish with some vegetables and still call it "salad." That's just the way these things work. Similarly, it's easy to see how you could start with something cold that is mostly vegetables with some potatoes, and then over the years, end up with something that is cold and mostly potatoes that you still call "salad" -- and when you are introduced to a dish of potatoes that is hot and includes bacon, but is still dressed with vinegar, it's easy to call that "salad" as well, because it's similar to what you would know as a kind of "potato salad" except that it's warm. It's a small step from this to a warm "salad" comprised mostly of squid. We see similar things happening now in the cocktail tradition, where there is a general movement to call any cocktail served in a V-glass a "Martini."

All of the things I describe above could be called something else other than salad, probably more accurately. The one common factor that makes things "salad" would seem to be the presence of some kind of acid as a primary component of the dish. Although, as with all things, some people have taken that out as well and still call it "salad."

But, really, any word that can be used to describe a hot dish of potatoes, bacon and vinegar; a cold dish of field greens dressed in vinegar and oil; potatoes, celery and onion with mayonnaise; warm squid with herbs and a vinaigrette; mixed diced fruit in syrup; cold pasta dressed in just about anything; and flavored gelatin encasing canned fruit and/or various vegetables -- well, that word doesn't have a meaning that can be nailed down in any meaningful way.

--

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The first time I offered to make my eldest grandson (then about 5) a BLT, he looked at me with a look of horror and said "Grandma, it has SALAD on it."

I think salad implies "good for you" and "cold ingredients"; the warm dressing, cold ingredients or the reverse is an anomaly.

For interesting notes visit Food Timeline for Salads.

Ruth Dondanville aka "ruthcooks"

“Are you making a statement, or are you making dinner?” Mario Batali

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Another interesting note: In Australia and New Zealand, the presence of lettuce, cucumber, and tomato or any other vegetables on a sandwich is often called "salad". As in, in a Subway, they would ask, "Do you want any salad on that?"

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I once read about a recipe for green salad that went like this:

Dress a bowl of mixed greens with olive oil, salt & pepper, and serve it on small plates with a glass of red wine on the side. Sip the red wine as you eat the salad.

The acidity of the wine is supposed to play the role of vinegar or other acid in the dressing, of course. I still prefer to dress my green salads with the oil and the acid, but this was fun to try.

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This is an interesting question. Who defines salad? What happens to the salad when it is *exported.* For instance, Greek salad. Of course, when you are in Greece, you will not hear the Greeks ordering such a salad. It is simply called *horiatiki.* Horio means village. You'll enjoy whatever is ready to harvest in the local gardens. In this case, a more accurate translation might be *summer salad* because the core ingredients are fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.

Depending on where you are and what time of year it is, there are some tried and true flavor/texture combinations. Horiatiki is part of a long list. While you can replicate this across the globe at any point in time with flavorless out-of-season imports, you would not be able to enjoy a Greek salad in a Greek village once the growing season has ended. Eating fresh and local is the only option for many people around the world...which can be an advantage.

Most likely, at some point, someone passing through claimed a particular combination of local ingredients was *authentic* or *classic* and the rest is history with plenty of marketing mania. However, if you are in the mountains of Crete in August and your hosts have run out of onions, they can still serve a horiatiki without concern for wandering self-proclaimed authenticity experts. Also, they will not be serving olives from Kalamata or a *dressing* of chemicals from a USA laboratory.

Since the Greek salad concept was successfully exported, it can now mean most anything to any one. I don't know how iceberg lettuce ended up in exported varieties...I've never seen the tasteless stuff growing in a villager's garden. We grow a lot of Kos (Romaine). Fresh greens (both cultivated and wild) are normally served on their own in a variety of ways that let their texture and flavor shine, instead of being overpowered and weighed down by horiatiki ingredients. It's just the way it is. Ironically, because *Greek salad* has become so famous outside of the country, Greek taverna owners working near mass tourism areas attempt to keep an ample supply of anticipated ingredients on hand for visitors. Call it the classic boomerang.

Nikki Rose

Founder and Director

Crete's Culinary Sanctuaries

Eco-Agritourism Network

www.cookingincrete.com

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To me the meaning of salad is something to "refresh or cleanse" (although the word salad implies salt and indeed in most countries salt and oil is and has always been used since time immemorial) always used the palate and often served alongside a main dish the palate especially me a big meat eater.

Other intended salads could be interpreted as side dishes or accompaniments except for fruit salads where the intention is the same that s to refresh the palate but after ones meal.

However when I first arrived in Australia and for many years later many people mostly office workers used to refer to unseasoned (no dressing) sandwiches as salad(carrots,onions,lettuce and beets) sandwiches which for me (mainly Mediterranean diet) would not strictly fit the description nor I would eat them anyway.

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A potato being a vegetable, potato salad fits in the general paradigm. I wonder if tuna and chicken salads got their name by the parallel preparation to potato salad.

"You dont know everything in the world! You just know how to read!" -an ah-hah! moment for 6-yr old Miss O.

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