Seventeenth Century English Salads

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The first salad recipe that I am aware of in the. English culinary canon (putting aside anything from the Roman occupation of Britain) …

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Seventeenth Century English Salads
by Cathy K. Kaufman
Although nicknamed the very carnivorous-sounding “beefeaters,” the English have a long, proud tradition of salads. The first salad recipe that I am aware of in the English culinary canon (putting aside anything from the Roman occupation of Britain) appears in The Forme Of Cury (ca. 1390), written by the cooks to Richard II, the “royallest vyander of all Christian kings.” This salad, a litany of fresh herbs, garlic, onions, fennel, and greens, dressed only with “rawe” oil, vinegar, and salt, would be at home on any contemporary table-save for the fact that most modern greengrocers do not carry the full complement of herbs specified, such as rue and borage.
Many more salad recipes are recorded during the glory days of English cookery, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The English used the term salad broadly to encompass a wide range of vegetable dishes, from very simple recipes that are still popular today, such as pickled cucumbers, to “boiled” salads, to “grand sallats,” raw greens accented with dried and candied fruits, cooked eggs, and capers. The “Grand Sallets,” (the spelling varies with the…

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