Salad days
Some forms of salad have been consumed for centuries, originally made primarily from cabbage and root vegetables, flavored with vinegar, oils, and herbs. The ancient Greeks believed that raw green vegetables promoted good digestion, and the Romans agreed. The first lettuce recordings appeared in the 6th century BC. C., although they did not resemble our current varieties.
Salads have come a long way from the pedestrian version of lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. Today there is no end to the hundreds of varieties, ingredients, and dressings available to our salad-crazy nation. In the 1920s, they achieved great success, when restaurant chefs created Caesar, Chef, Cobb, and fruit salads. Canned vegetables and fruits became more available and added to the mix, allowing Americans to eat salads year-round. Simple vinegar and oil made room for bottled dressings and mayonnaise, paving the way for “joined salads.” It sounds a bit perverted, but this category includes some of our favorites: tuna salad, chicken salad, egg salad, ham salad, shrimp and crab salad. Chicken came first, showing up in cookbooks of the mid-19th century, tuna much later with the advent of canned tuna. In the late 1930s, Spam made ham salad easy, and egg salad came naturally. With the introduction of Jello, molded salads took their colorful place in any lunch.
Restaurateur Robert Cobb created the salad that bears his name at his Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood; The chef’s salad debuted at New York’s Ritz Carlton and originally featured sliced beef tongue along with ham and cheese. (Fortunately, in later years, turkey or chicken replaced beef tongue.) In Hollywood’s early days, Caesar salad was embraced by stars, who happily ate this trendy salad at some of their favorite restaurants. The creator, Caesar Cardini, eventually bottled and sold his signature dressing in the Los Angeles area. A favorite Chicago restaurant, the Blackhawk, featured its signature “spinning salad bowl” alongside each menu item, served table-side.
French chefs made vinaigrette dressings with oil, herbs, minced shallots, and paprika throughout the 19th century, and those especially adventurous added tomato sauce, which became the base for classic French dressing. Kraft Foods, in 1939, introduced its popular version, orange. Boomers remember it drizzled on iceberg lettuce. Miracle Whip appeared around the same time, labeled salad dressing, but is primarily used to join chopped meat, chicken, or eggs for a tasty sandwich filling. In the 1920s, the Green Goddess dressing was created in a San Francisco restaurant in honor of a play of the same name. (Good thing Death of a seller did not debut that same year).
Colonial America grew lettuce in their home gardens, along with cabbage, beans, and tubers. A seasonal delicacy, it was enjoyed only in summer and was not available year-round until the 20th century, when California grew and shipped head lettuce across the country. To be sure, the president of foodies, Thomas Jefferson, experimented with a number of varieties that were served daily to his family and dinner guests, with a vinaigrette dressing or a pinch of herbs and mayonnaise (his chef had training in French).
As Americans developed more sophisticated tastes, traditional iceberg lettuce took a back seat to romaine lettuce, arugula, endive, chicory, and field greens. Originally, these varieties were considered vegetables for the elite due to their price and perishability. Lately, retro salads are popping up with iceberg lettuce quarters and dressing. For the Boomers who grew up on these things, it dates back to the 50s along with Spam Salad, Meatloaf, Canned Fruit Cocktail, and Popsicles.
With Americans’ love of pasta, it was only a matter of time before pasta salad emerged, first appearing as a simple macaroni salad, giving way to more sophisticated versions and add-ons.
European immigrants brought their potato salad recipes to the United States, both hot and cold, using cheap, easy-to-grow potato as a hearty base. Europe was serving potato salad as early as the 17th century, usually mixed with vinegar, oil, and bacon, the forerunner of German potato salad, served hot. Warmer climates enjoyed cold potatoes with cream and greens. The French, carelessly in the kitchen department, went a step further, adding mayonnaise, herbs and mustard, Dijon of course. (No self-respecting Frenchman would even think of using yellow mustard the way Americans do.)
Since the 1970s, when salad bars became de rigueur, the humble salad has taken center stage, no longer an afterthought alongside a main course. Supermarkets offer packaged lettuce and salad dressings, boxed pasta salad mix, and rows of colorful veggies and greens, all ready to be dressed up. It is no longer considered “rabbit food”, we can indulge ourselves almost anywhere. So get up on the bar and dig.