Salsa et al.

[fimbul]

What is the difference, if any, between salsa, chutney, relish and the like? Is it ingredients? preparation? context?

I was thinking about this the other night, when I prepared (what I called) a salsa of chopped orange, capers, shallot, parsley, and red wine vinegar that caused my father to ask why my concoction was a "salsa" rather than, say, a chutney. My short answer was that I was the cook and I could call the concoction "Whale Snot" if I wanted to, but the question got me thinking, and I tried to give my dad a better answer without much success.

In today's world, where ingredients and preparations are less and less bound to one tradition or another, is there a difference?

[vengroff]

Salsa simply means sauce, so any sauce from anywhere is technically a salsa. For a while, the popular usage was narrowed to mean the tomato, pepper and onion stuff you dip corn chips in. But now usage seems to be expanding again to cover a wider variety of things.

[Monica Bhide]

I recently did a presentation on this topic.. I can send you the file if you PM me.

The headline I used (my opinion only) was :

Chutneys and Salsas:. Chutneys, salsas, and pickles are part of daily life in the Indian home. Brought out at every meal, they add a touch of the unexpected to whatever you are eating. Home cooks can punch up traditional chutneys and salsas and use them in new ways. A chutney may be served as an accompaniment, spread, salad dressing, or stuffing for a rolled meat or fish preparation. Chutneys can be sweet, sour, sweet and sour, preserved, or freshly made. Currently fashionable, salsas are much in the same spirit. They can be chili-hot, sharp, fresh, and coarsely flavored, and spell rhythm and pizzazz when used creatively

[fimbul]

Salsa simply means sauce, so any sauce from anywhere is technically a salsa. For a while, the popular usage was narrowed to mean the tomato, pepper and onion stuff you dip corn chips in. But now usage seems to be expanding again to cover a wider variety of things.

I'd thought of that, but, in practice, calling any sauce a "salsa" might confuse the issue. I'd hesitate, for instance, to serve chutney with an Indian meal and call it salsa.

Of course, I've found various definitions for both "salsa" and "chutney" that begin more or less, "a relish often comprised of...."

[fifi]

Thanks a lot, fimbul! You would have to bring THIS up.

Anyway...

I think of salsa as a chopped up side dish (relish?) that used to be primarily the tomato, onion, pepper thing. Can be cooked or not?

So what is pico de gallo? It is always what they call the raw stuff in the restaurants here.

Then "salsa" has come to mean any mixture of chopped up vegetable matter served on the side as a "relish".

(One of my favorites is mango, purple onion, red bell pepper, diced jalepeno, jicama and lime juice. Pretty far from the tomato thing.)

Then chutney raises its head. I always think of it as a sweetish relish (there is that word again) in the Indian tradition, usually cooked and with some sort of fruit as one of the ingredients. But, then, my knowledge of Indian food is not as broad as my knowledge of the Latin traditions.

Is my simple thinly sliced purple onion with lime juice s&p a relish? Too simple?

So what is it??? Thanks again, fimbul. You make me realize that I haven't a F****** clue!

[torakris]

There was this interesting thead on the same thing a little while back:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...t=3515&hl=salsa

[sandra]

In Spanish a salsa is a sauce - so you have the whole range, salsa mayonesa (mayo), salsa de tomate (tomato sauce) salsa gribiche, salsa remoulade, salsa bechamela, salsa pico de gallo, salsa de chipotle, etc...

You get my drift - any sauce, no matter if it's cooked or raw, chopped up or smooth is salsa....

In English it has come to mean mostly the salsa mexicana which is the tomatoes, onins, cilantro type mixture and variations thereof - while correct, it still usually only refers to mixtures of chopped ingredients...

So to me, in Spanish a salsa is ANY sauce, even chutneys...