# What is a salad? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [June 19, 2026, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018 "2026-06-19T11:37:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/101 "2026-06-23T21:22:42Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Spots may indicate a problem. > > There’s a cream for that. (Salad cream, perhaps?) You can rub it on if you want, dear… 😏 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/102 "2026-06-23T21:24:28Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Sometime the potatoes are firm, but usually actual crunch comes from including things like raw green onions and/or finely chopped celery in the potato salad. Or the bones are left in the frogs. 😊 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/103 "2026-06-23T21:31:06Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Raisins. You know the story that ends: **SALESGIRL:** Is yours raisin too? **OLD MAN:** Nope. But it’s twitchin’ a mite! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/104 "2026-06-23T21:35:04Z")
You cracked me up. 😄 Both of you!! ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/105 "2026-06-23T21:37:29Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > You cracked me up. I’m not even gonna touch that one! 😳 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/106 "2026-06-23T21:44:03Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > Sometime the potatoes are firm, but usually actual crunch comes from including things like raw green onions and/or finely chopped celery in the potato salad. > > Or the bones are left in the frogs. Goes without saying. Potato salad is not really a salad at all without crunchy frog. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/107 "2026-06-23T21:46:46Z")
And if we took the bones out, they wouldn’t be crunchy, would they? 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/108 "2026-06-24T00:00:06Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > We had Walking Taco Salad tonight. (No I don’t know what it’s walking to). > > I love it but I can’t have much of the Catalina dressing. That kinda makes it. > > Lettuce > > Ground beef cooked with taco seasoning. > > Red kidney beans, drained. > > Tomatoes, onions, celery. (Daughter adds a bit of shredded carrot) > > Cheddar/ pepper jack cheese. > > The Catalina dressing and Fritos like croutons. Don’t let them say it’s unhealthy. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fXWq2AVlrsY/hqdefault.jpg "Bud Light "Real Men Of Genius - Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor" 1999") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXWq2AVlrsY) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2026, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/109 "2026-06-27T02:59:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > I just thought the name was funny. > > You were probably thinking about Crunchy Frog instead. 🙂 _All_ frogs are crunchy, my friend. Unless you de-bone them first (which is something that simply isn’t done). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/110 "2026-06-28T19:13:16Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/111 "2026-06-28T19:15:08Z")
See post 106. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/112 "2026-06-29T15:18:49Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > > [@Atamasama](#): > > > > You’re also describing potato salad the way you eat it. > > You got me! Though that was long ago when it was freshly made at home. These days potato salad is always cold. In any case, it just shows that the concept of “salad” is often a matter of tradition and individual semantics. I call it “potato salad” because that’s its name, but to me it’s not really a salad, just a kind of tasty starch comparable to mashed potatoes, only cold and crunchy. Yeah, potato salad, tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad .. those aren’t what i mean by “salad”. Although i guess they are all related to each other. I don’t really like any of them (except tuna for whatever reason), so I don’t have a name for them collectively. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/113 "2026-06-29T15:37:27Z")
that was my original question, apparently not well though, how did non-leafy green leaf concoctions get called “salad” ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2026, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/114 "2026-06-29T15:44:59Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Yeah, potato salad, tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad .. those aren’t what i mean by “salad”. And certainly not fruit salad! When I say I’m going to “get a salad”, I don’t mean any of those, even if they have names including the word “salad”. If I was going to “fix” our language I’d just replace the misleading word “salad” with the more generic but more accurate word “mix”. I’ll have a tuna mix sandwich, with a potato mix on the side. To me that works. I’m not going to fix the language though. “Salad” it is. 😮‍💨 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2026, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/115 "2026-06-30T17:09:30Z")
Just throwing into the mix here 😉 the etymology of the word “salad”, from classical Latin _herba salata_ or “salted vegetables”, generally meaning fresh greens dressed primarily with salt, oil and vinegar. The “mixedness” aspect took over from the “raw greensness” aspect as a defining feature of a salad a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/116 "2026-07-02T02:54:14Z")
> [@fedman1](#): > > that was my original question, apparently not well though, how did non-leafy green leaf concoctions get called “salad” I answered this based on what I found. It comes from a word meaning salt, and was short for _herba salata_, which literally means “salted vegetables”, but refers to an Ancient Roman dish of raw leafy vegetables, salt water, oil, and vinegar. Other garden vegetables were added, and new dressings were used over time. They fell out of favor after the fall of Rome, but were rediscovered in the Renaissance, and that’s when other items began to be added, using up other scraps. By that time vegetarianism wasn’t super popular and so people were adding meat, as well as other combinable items, mixing in stuff from their own local uncooked, combined ingredient dishes. The dressings also got much elaborate, and the greens became less important. The term salad grew to encompass combined ingredients with dressing, and were often very fancy dishes with elaborate sauces. And one of those new sauces was mayonnaise. And that brings us to the bound salads. With the advent of refrigeration, mayo spread beyond its origin of a fancy French sauce into a mass market food, and with it people started mimicking those fancy French bound salads, using mayo to hold them together. Gelatin is another previously expensive item that has the same treatment, hence “jello salads.” The garden salads of course continued to exist, and other variations like the fruit salad, or salads with pickled ingredients, and yes, even hot salads were among those more generic salads I mentioned earlier. Any dish that was made up of combined ingredients would get combined with or just recategorized as a type of salad. And, of course, you could also remove the dressing and still call the mixed greens and garden veggies a salad. The term grew to encompass a way of combining ingredients without cooking them (even if some of the ingredients may have previously been cooked–you didn’t tend to eat raw meat, after all), and usually providing some sort of sauce. But the garden salad still remains the default when the term is used by itself. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/117 "2026-07-02T03:16:32Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > But the garden salad still remains the default when the term is used by itself. Yes, pretty much this. I think the closest we can come to a workable definition is “a bunch of stuff, usually one or more vegetables, mixed together and seasoned with a dressing, and meant to be served cold”. That encompasses your typical leafy green garden salad and all its many variants, cucumber salad, tuna salad, pasta salad, potato salad, and pretty much all the others. ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/118 "2026-07-02T13:47:33Z")
Thank you very much, Mr T, for your response, THAT was the answer I sought in OP!! You’re the man! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2026, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/119 "2026-07-04T13:18:55Z")
Glad to help, hon. But I’m not a Mr. :3 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2026, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018/120 "2026-07-04T13:50:23Z")
Ms T, then. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-salad/1031018.md?page=7)