Asalad is adish consisting of mixed ingredients, frequently vegetables. They are typically served chilled or at room temperature, though some can be served warm. Condiments calledsalad dressings, which exist in a variety of flavors, are usually used to make a salad.
When a sauce is used to flavor a salad, it is generally called adressing; most salad dressings are based on either amixture of oil and vinegar or a creamy dairy base.
The word "salad" comes to English from theFrenchsalade of the same meaning, itself an abbreviated form of the earlierVulgar Latinherba salata (salted herb), from theLatinsalata (salted), fromsal (salt). In English, the word first appears as "salad" or "sallet" in the 14th century. Salt is associated with salad because vegetables were seasoned withbrine (a solution of salt in water) or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings duringRoman times.[1]The phrase "salad days", meaning a "time of youthful inexperience" (based on the notion of "green"), is first recorded by Shakespeare in 1606,[1] while the use ofsalad bar, referring to abuffet-style serving of salad ingredients, first appeared inAmerican English in 1937.[2]
Oil used on salads can be found in ancient Greece and ancient Rome,[3] and also in the 17th-century colony ofNew Netherland (later called New York, New Jersey and Delaware). A list of common items arriving on ships and their designated prices when appraising cargo included "a can of salad oil at 1.10 florins" and "an anker of wine vinegar at 16 florins".[7] In a 1665 letter to the Director of New Netherland fromthe Island of Curaçao there is a request to send greens: "I request most amicably that your honors be pleased to send me seed of every sort, such as cabbage, carrots, lettuce, parsley, etc. for none can be acquired here and I know that your honor has plenty,...".[8]
Salads may be sold insupermarkets, atrestaurants and atfast food chains. In the United States, restaurants may have asalad bar with salad-making ingredients, which the customers will use to put together their salad.[9] Salad restaurants were earning more than $300 million in 2014.[10] At-home salad consumption in the 2010s was rising but moving away from fresh-chopped lettuce and toward bagged greens and salad kits, with bag sales expected to reach $7 billion per year.[11]
A large mixed saladA Middle Eastern salad calledTaboulleh
A salad can be acomposed salad (with the ingredients specifically arranged on the serving dish) or atossed salad (with the ingredients placed in a bowl and mixed, often with salad dressing). Anantipasto plate, the first dish of a formalItalian meal, is similar to a composed salad, and has vegetables, cheese, and meat.[citation needed]
A wide variety of cheeses are used in dinner salads, includingRoquefort blue cheese (traditional for a Cobb salad), andSwiss, Cheddar, Jack, and Provolone (for chef and Cobb salads).[citation needed]
Dessert salads rarely include leafy greens and are often sweet. Common variants are made withgelatin orwhipped cream; e.g.jello salad,pistachio salad, andambrosia. Other forms of dessert salads include regional dishes such as Midwestern America's ambrosia-likeglorified rice andcookie salad, which contains crumbled cookies as an ingredient.[13]
A tossed green salad
A simple salad of anchovies and tomato wedges
American-stylepotato salad with egg and mayonnaise
^"Birth of the salad bar; Local restaurant owners may have invented the common buffet," TheState Journal-Register (Springfield, IL), 28 December 2001, Magazine section (p. 10A)
^Paula Deen."Wedge Salad".Food Network. Archived fromthe original on 24 January 2016. Retrieved25 January 2016.
^abcMelissa Barlow, Stephanie Ashcraft.Things to Do with a Salad: One Hundred One Things to Do With a Salad. Gibbs Smith, 2006.ISBN1-4236-0013-4. 128 pages,page 7.
Frances Barber Harris (1918),Florida Salads: a collection of dainty, wholesome salad recipes that will appeal to the most fastidious, Jacksonville, Fla: Jacksonville Printing Co.,OCLC509840,OL6612631M
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