A salad is a dish consisting of a mixture of small pieces of food, usually featuring vegetables. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled. Salads may contain virtually any type of ready-to-eat food.
Garden salads use a base of leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, kale or spinach; they are common enough that the word salad alone often refers specifically to garden salads. Other types include bean salad, tuna salad, fattoush, Greek salad, and Japanese s?men salad (a noodle-based salad). The sauce used to flavor a salad is commonly called a salad dressing; most salad dressings are based on either a mixture of oil and vinegar or a fermented milk product.
Salads may be served at any point during a meal:
- Appetizer salads - light, smaller portion-salads served as the first course of the meal.
- Side salads - to accompany the main course as a side dish.
- Main course salads - usually containing a portion of a protein food, such as chicken breast, salmon, legumes, cheese or slices of beef.
- Dessert salads - sweet versions containing fruit, gelatin, sweeteners or whipped cream.
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Etymology
The word "salad" comes from the French salade of the same meaning, from the Latin salata (salty), from sal (salt). In English, the word first appears as "salad" or "sallet" in the 14th century. Salt is associated with salad because vegetables were seasoned with brine or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings during Roman times. The phrase "salad days", meaning a "time of youthful inexperience" (based on the notion of "green"), is first recorded by Shakespeare in 1606, while the use of salad bar, referring to a buffet-style serving of salad ingredients, first appeared in American English in 1976.
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History
The Romans and ancient Greeks ate mixed greens with dressing. In his 1699 book, Acetaria: A Discourse on Sallets, John Evelyn attempted with little success to encourage his fellow Britons to eat fresh salad greens. Mary, Queen of Scots, ate boiled celery root over greens covered with creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil, and slices of hard-boiled eggs.
Oil used on salads can be found in the 17th century colony of New Netherland (Later called New York, New Jersey and Delaware). A list of common items arriving on ships and their designated price when appraising cargo, "a can of salad oil at 1.10 florins" and "an anker of wine vinegar at 16 florins". In a 1665 letter to the Director of New Netherland from the 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,...".
Salads, including layered and dressed salads, were popular in Europe since the Greek and Roman imperial expansions. Salads are sold in supermarkets, at restaurants and at fast food chains. In the US market, restaurants will often have a "Salad Bar" laid out with salad-making ingredients, which the customers will use to put together their salad. Salad restaurants were earning more than $300 million in 2014.
Types of salads
A salad can be composed (with the ingredients specifically arranged) or tossed (with the ingredients placed in a bowl and mixed).
Green salad
A green salad or garden salad is most often composed of leafy vegetables such as lettuce varieties, spinach, or rocket (arugula). The salad leaves may be cut or torn into bite-sized fragments and tossed together (called a tossed salad), or may be placed in a predetermined arrangement (a composed salad). They are often adorned with garnishes such as nuts or croutons.
A wedge salad is made from a head of lettuce (such as iceberg) halved or quartered, with other ingredients on top.
Vegetable salad
Vegetables other than greens may be used in a salad. Common raw vegetables used in a salad include cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onions, spring onions, red onions, carrots, celery, and radishes. Other ingredients, such as mushrooms, avocado, olives, hard boiled egg, artichoke hearts, heart of palm, roasted red bell peppers, green beans, croutons, cheeses, meat (e.g. bacon, chicken), or seafood (e.g. tuna, shrimp), are sometimes added to salads.
Bound salad
They are assembled with thick sauces such as mayonnaise. One portion of a true bound salad will hold its shape when placed on a plate with an ice-cream scoop. Examples of bound salad include tuna salad, pasta salad, chicken salad, egg salad, and potato salad.
Bound salads are often used as sandwich fillings. They are popular at picnics and barbecues.
Main course salads
Main course salads (also known as "dinner salads" and commonly known as "entrée salads" in North America) may contain grilled or fried chicken pieces, seafood such as grilled or fried shrimp or a fish steak such as tuna, mahi-mahi, or salmon or sliced steak, such as sirloin or skirt. Caesar salad, Chef salad, Cobb salad, Chinese chicken salad and Michigan salad are dinner salads.
Fruit salads
Fruit salads are made of fruit, which may be fresh or canned. Examples include fruit cocktail. Note that "fruit" here refers to culinary fruits, many components of vegetable salads (such as tomatoes and cucumbers) are botanical fruits but culinary vegetables.
Dessert salads
Dessert salads rarely include leafy greens and are often sweet. Common variants are made with gelatin or whipped cream; e.g. jello salad, pistachio salad, and ambrosia. Other forms of dessert salads include snickers salad, glorified rice, and cookie salad popular in parts of the Midwestern United States.
Dressings
Sauces for salads are often called "dressings". The concept of salad dressing varies across cultures.
In Western culture, there are two basic types of salad dressing:
- Vinaigrettes based on a mixture (emulsion) of salad oil and vinegar, often flavored with herbs, spices, salt, pepper, sugar, and other ingredients.
- Creamy dressings, usually based on mayonnaise or fermented milk products, such as yogurt, sour cream (crème fraîche, smetana), buttermilk;
In North America, mayonnaise-based ranch dressing is most popular, with vinaigrettes and Caesar-style dressing following close behind. Traditional dressings in France are vinaigrettes, typically mustard-based, while sour cream (smetana) and mayonnaise are predominant in eastern European countries and Russia. In Denmark, dressings are often based on crème fraîche. In southern Europe, salad is generally dressed by the diner with olive oil and vinegar.
In Asia, it is common to add sesame oil, fish sauce, citrus juice, or soy sauce to salad dressings.
The following are examples of common salad dressings:
Toppings and garnishes
Popular salad garnishes are nuts, croutons, anchovies, bacon bits (real or imitation), garden beet, bell peppers, shredded carrots, diced celery, watercress, sliced cucumber, parsley, sliced mushrooms, sliced red onion, radish, french fries, sunflower seeds (shelled), real or artificial crab meat (surimi) and cherry tomatoes. Various cheeses, berries, seeds and other ingredients can also be added to green salads. Cheeses, in the form of cubes, crumbles, or grated, are often used, including blue cheese, Parmesan cheese, and feta cheese. Color considerations are sometimes addressed by using edible flowers, red radishes, carrots, various colors of peppers, and other colorful ingredients.
Salad records
The moshav (agricultural village) of Sde Warburg, Israel, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest lettuce salad, weighing 10,260 kg (11.3 short tons). The event, held on 10 November 2007, was part of the 70th anniversary celebration of the founding of the moshav. The salad was sold to participants and onlookers alike for 10 NIS per bowl, raising 100,000 NIS (over $25,000) to benefit Aleh Negev, a rehabilitative village for young adults suffering from severe physical and cognitive disabilities. Major General (Res.) Doron Almog, Chairman of Aleh Negev was present to accept the donation and commended the residents, who had grown the lettuce and prepared the salad on the moshav. The volunteer effort to prepare the salad itself took all day and most of the residents, ranging from many of the original founders of the moshav to young children, participated. On 23 September 2012, the largest salad was made weighing 19,050 kg, in Pantelimon, Bucharest, Romania.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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