Salad, Salad, Who asked for salad ?
When you start researching salads, you have an endless list of assorted
vegetables , pastas, dressings, chilled, hot or any where
in between. Looking at history salad received its name from “sal”,
meaning salt. In ancient times, salt was an ingredient in many of the
dressing used to coat greens and vegetables. Romans and Greeks are
credited with enjoying some of the first salads. They were simple
salads of mixed greens with a dressing. As time progressed, salad got
more complicated. Salad started varying according to the place and
time they were served. In the 18th century salads assembled with layers
of ingredients were called “salmagundi”, today they are called chef
salads. Let’s take a look at some of the popular salads we eat here in
America
Cole Slaw: Historians generally agree that “cole slaw is of Dutch
origin. Coleslaw means “ cabbage salad”. The words are from Dutch
koolsla, a combination of kool “ cabbage” and sal, “salad”.
Early settlers brought cabbage to America , the Dutch who settled in
New Netherlands ( New York State), planted cabbage through out the
state. area. Cole slaw was mispronounced as “cold slaw” for many
years, do to the fact that cole slaw was and still is served cold. Today
coleslaw is found prepared in many different styles, much having to do
with local and cultural traditions.
Potato salad: Potatoes are a “New World” food that was brought to
Europe by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. Germany is credited
with a hot potato salad (usually served with a bacon, onion and
vinegar dressing). History can not pin down any country for
introducing cold potato salad, but the French created mayonnaise.
This gave cooks the opportunity to create many variations of cold
salads using potatoes. Cooked potatoes, hard boiled eggs, onions,
celery, mustard and mayo are the most popular ingredients found in
most potato salads.
Pasta salad: The pasta salads that we see in delis and served at our
church socials has a very short history. In the early 80’s, chefs that
were part of the Nouvelle Cuisine philosophy started making pasta
salads with gourmet pastas of various shapes, sizes and colors.
Considered as an affordable upscale cuisine and a way to use
leftovers, this style salad caught the attention of the main stream
food companies and they started promoting a pasta salad box kit.