Salad and dressing

Food Production 1

Unit 6 (i) Salad and dressing

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Definition of Salads:-

  A small pieces of food such as pasta, meat,fruit or vegetablesvusually mixed with a dressing such as mayonnaise or set in gelatin is known as salad.

   According to Oxford Living Dictionary, 'Salad is a cold dish of various mixtures of raw or cooked vegetables, usually seasoned with oil ,vinegar ,or other dressing and something accompanied by meat, fish, or other ingredients'.

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Components /Parts of Salads

The basic four components of a salad are

Foundation/ Base

Body

Garnish

Dressing

Foundation of the Salad

(i) Foundation is the base ingredient of a salad.

(ii) Green leaves of Romanie, Bibb lettuce, Boston, Iceberg lettuce,etc.,often used as the foundation of a salad.

(iii) It acts as the underline of the salad.

(iv) Leaves of iceberg or Boston lettuce are cup shaped ,hence make an attractive base and add height , whereas tossed salad do not have any underline.so, serve in a bowl.

Body of a salad

Body gives the identity to a salad e.g. garden -fresh vegetables form the body of green salad and meat, poultry, legume, fish ,etc., form the body of protein salad.

Garnish of a salad

(i) It creates the visual appeal or often flavor of the salad.

(ii) It should be colorful, edible and have the same temperature as the salad itself.

(iii) Any vegetable, fruit cut into a simple shape to make the garnish, e.g, shreds of red cabbage mixed into a tossed green salad, herbs, hard-cooked eggs, olives, fruits,cheese and nuts.

(iv) Fruit salad does not require any garnish and dressing.

Dressing of a salad

The liquids or semi liquids used to flavor , tartness, spiciness, and moistness to salads are termed Salad Dressing.

Types :-

Fig: Classification of Dressing 

Emulsion Dressing:

         When two non missible liguid mixed informally then the mixture is called as an Emulsion.

        The mixing property of these two liquids are of three types:-

Temporary

Permanent and

Semi-permanent.

(i) Temporary/Oil and vinegar dressing 

   (a)Basic vinaigrette is a simple mixture of oil, vinegar and seasonings. 

(b) The ratio of oil and vinegar is 3:1. ( some chefs prefer a 2:1 or 4:1 or 5:1 ratio).

( c) If oil is less, the dressing will be more tart, while more oil makes the taste oiler and milder.

(d) If the strength of vinegar is 5% than it is diluted with water.

(e) For good emulsions some mustard and a little pepper is added.

 (f) Types of oil:- Corn oil, Cottonseed oil, Peanut oil, Olive oil and walnut oil.

(g) Types of vinegar:- Cider vinegar, White or distilled vinegar, wine vinegar, Flavored vinegar, Sherry vinegar, Balsamic vinegar.

     In a temporary emulsion the two liquids i.e. oil and vinegar always separate on shaking e.g.Vinaigrettes.

(ii) Permanent/Mayonnaise - based dressings

It is a mixture of egg yolk, oil and vinegar, but does not separate on shaking, thus it is a permanent emulsion.

It is also termed as Cream style or Fatty Dressing.

(iii) Semi-Permanent Emulsion 

 Such an emulsion lasts for a shorter period of time( a few hrs),e.g. Hollandaise.

 It is cooked or boiled dressing.

 (B) Simple non emulsive dressing

In this case simple liquids do not make any emulsion or blend.The liquids are:-

Lemon juice:- Freshly squeezed lemon juice gives a tang and makes the salad acidic.

Olive oil:- It adds flavor to the salad.

Vinegars:- Vinegars flavored with fruit, herbs, garlic are popular dressing because they add flavor only not fat.

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Role of each parts of a salad:-

Base:-

Base makes the salad more appealing.

It acts as the underline of the salad.

It provides minerals and vitamins.

Body:-

It gives the body to the salad.

It provides minerals, vitamins, proteins and fibers depending upon the ingredients.

Garnish:-

It provides visual appeal as well as enhances the value of the salad.

It often adds flavor to the salad. 

Dressing:-

It develops the taste of the salad.

The oil present in dressing helps the body to absorb fat soluble vitamins.

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Types of Salad:-

By ingredients:

(i) Green salads

(ii) Side salads

(iii) Composed salads

(iv) Desserts salad

By methods of preparation

(i) Simple Salad

(ii) Composed Salad

(iii) Tossed Salad

By serving

(i) Appetizer salad

(ii) Accompaniment salad

(iii) Main course salad

(iv) Separate course salad

(v) Desserts salad 

Green salad:- A salad consisting chiefly of lettuce and other leafy green vegetable.

Side salad:- It is made from vegetables, potatoes,grains ,pastas and legume.

Composed salad:- It is a salad in which ingredients are arranged separately on a plate, rather than tossing them together.

Desserts salad:- It is the sweet containg salad. The ingredients are fruits, nuts ,ice cream, whipped cream and sweetned gelatin.

Simple salad:- It comprises only one kind of green leafy vegetable.

e.g.

Washes ,dried and torned 4 ounce lettuce is dressed by 2 tsf olive oil, 2 tsf vinegar/ lemon juice and half TSP honey , flaky salt, freshly ground black pepper.Addition of basil/ mint/ finely shredded carrots/ julienned cucumber is optional

Composed salad:- (Described earlier).

It looks like a complete meal.

e.g. Nicoise salad in which anchovies, artichoke hearts, olives ,tomatoes,peppers , etc , are arranged on the plate.

    

Tossed salad:- The ingredients of the salad are mixed together.

Appetizer salad:- Size is 80-120 gms. It stimulates the appetite and freshness as the first course of meal. The ingredients are lettuce, cheese, ham, salami,shrimp, crab-meat and vegetables lightly coated with tangy flavoured dressing.

e.g. Waldorf salad.

Accompaniment salad :- Size is 60-120 gm.It is light , colourful and not too rich .The main ingredients are vegatables. It serves as the accompaniment of steaks, sandwiches ,grilled ,rosted and fried poultry or meat.

e.g. Caesar salad, Greek salad, Green salad , cold slow,,etc.

Main Course salad:- Serve as main course. It is large ; 200. -400 gms and made of meat, fish, eggs, poultry, fruits, vegetables or a combination of fruit and cheese.

e.g.Nicoise salad, Chicken Caesar salad,etc,.

Side dish salad:- Serve as side dishes of the main course. It is light, flavoured and 60-120 gms in size.

        If green ,then ingredients are lettuce, tomatoes, onion, paprika and cucumber.

      If starchy, then pasta, potatoes, barley, quinca, tofu ,beans ,coscous or tempeh are the ingredients.

Seperate course salad:- It is served after dinner and before desserts.It is very light with greens lightly dressed with vinaigrette.

e.g. green salad, fruit salad ,etc.

Desserts salad:- Described earlier.

Miscellaneous:- Fruit based salad, vegetable based salad, Fish based salad , Meat based salad etc, are the salads that come under ingredients based salads.

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Model questions

Define salad………2/ 16-17, 18-19

What are the different parts of a salad………..3/11-12,16-17, 17-18,18-19

Briefly state the role of each part of a salad……3/ 15-16,17-18

Explain salad dressing. Name five different types of salad dressing.

……..2011/12

Discuss various types of salad dressing……5/16-17