1. So much variety exists among salads that it is somewhat difficult to
give a comprehensive definition of this class of foods. In general,
however, salads may be considered as a dish of green herbs or
vegetables, sometimes cooked, and usually chopped or sliced, sometimes
mixed with fruit or with cooked and chopped cold meat, fish, etc., and
generally served with a dressing. For the most part, salads take their
name from their chief ingredient, as, for instance, chicken salad,
tomato salad, pineapple salad, etc. Just what place salads have in the
meal depends on the salad itself. A high-protein salad, such as lobster
salad, should take the place of the meat course, whereas, a light salad
of vegetables or fruits may be used as an additional course.
2. IMPORTANCE OF SALADS. Salads are often considered to be a dish of
little importance; that is, something that may be left out or added to a
meal without affecting it to any great extent. While this may be the
case in a meal that is composed of a sufficient variety of foods, salads
have a definite place in meals as they are planned in the majority of
households. Often there is a tendency to limit green vegetables or fresh
fruits in the diet, but if the members of a family are to be fed an
ideal diet it is extremely important that some of these foods enter into
each day's meals, a fact that is often overlooked. There is no more
effective nor appetizing way in which to include them in a meal than in
the serving of salads. In addition, salads make a strong appeal to the
appetite and at the same time are beneficial so far as the health of the
family is concerned.
3. PURPOSES OF SALADS.--Because of the wide variety of salads and the
large number of ingredients from which a selection may be made in their
preparation, salads can be used for various purposes. The housewife who
gives much attention to the artistic side of the serving of food in her
home will often use a salad to carry out a color scheme in her meal.
This is, of course, the least valuable use that salads have, but it is a
point that should not be overlooked. The chief purpose of salads in a
meal is to provide something that the rest of the foods served in the
meal lack.
Even though it is not desired to use the salad to carry out a color
scheme, it should always be made an attractive dish. As is well known,
nothing is so unappetizing as a salad in which the ingredients have not
been properly prepared, the garnish is not fresh and crisp, or the
dressing and salad ingredients have been combined in such a way as to
appear messy or stale looking. There is no excuse for such conditions,
and they need not exist if proper attention is given to the preparation
of the salad.
4. SELECTION OF SALADS.--Although salads, through their variety, offer
the housewife an opportunity to vary her meals, they require a little
attention as to their selection if a properly balanced meal is to be the
result. Salads that are high in food value or contain ingredients
similar to those found in the other dishes served in the meal, should be
avoided with dinners or with other heavy meals. For instance, a fish or
a meat salad should not be served with a dinner, for it would supply a
quantity of protein to a meal that is already sufficiently high in this
food substance because of the fact that meat also is included. Such a
salad, however, has a place in a very light luncheon or a supper, for it
helps to balance such a meal. The correct salad to serve with a dinner
that contains a number of heavy dishes is a vegetable salad, if enough
vegetables are not already included, or a fruit salad, if the dessert
does not consist of fruit. In case a fruit salad is selected, it is
often made to serve for both the salad and the dessert course.
5. SALAD ACCOMPANIMENTS.--In addition to the ingredients used in the
preparation of salads, dressings usually form an important part. These
vary greatly as to ingredients and consequently as to composition, but
most of them contain considerable fat and therefore increase the food
value of the salad. Then, too, an accompaniment of some kind is
generally served with salads to make them more attractive and more
pleasing to the taste. This may be a wafer or a cracker of some
description or a small sandwich made of bread cut into thin slices and
merely buttered or buttered and then spread with a filling of some sort.
Such accompaniments, of course, are not a necessity, but they add enough
to the salad to warrant their use.