Southern salads are supreme. Wednesday night prayer meetings, Saturday afternoon BBQ's, Friday night after the game, lunchbox delights southern salads are the glue that holds everything else together.

Potato salad is always icy cold and yellow from the little dab of mustard added to the globs of mayo. Sweet pickle relish or chow-chow, chopped hard boiled eggs and possibly a bit of onion. Secret spices like chopped basil, parsley, white pepper and just maybe a little celery seed.

We make meat salad out of just about any meat, ham, turkey, tuna, chicken and roast beef salad. The key ingredient is mayonnaise. Families are brand loyal in this aspect; you are a Duke's family, Hellmann's family or a new fangled Miracle Whip family. I've seen people's food literally boycotted over the wrong mayo. All the other ingredients vary by cook pecans for the chicken salad, bacon crumbles with the turkey and of course little cubes of American cheese in the ham.

Speaking of little cubes of American cheese, no gathering is complete without pea salad. That's the one that is always there but no one eats except after a six pack. Peas, fresh is best but frozen or canned will do in a pinch. Little pearl onions, cubed American cheese, cubed ham and of course Mayonnaise.

Fresh greens and we like to grow our own. Lettuce, spinach, cabbage and chicory topped off with everything you can think of. Onions, fresh sweet peas still in the pod, eggs, onions, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. Until Hidden Valley came out with the ranch mix in the seventies I'd never seen anything but homemade 1000 island, vinegar and oil or you guessed it mayonnaise. Never saw a head of iceberg until I was grown and moved to town. Still don't like the stuff.

One of my favorites is that big Pyrex dish filled with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, fresh herbs and what ever we ate raw out of the garden. Sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots, celery and radishes were always my favorite. We'd dip out and add all week and on Sunday what was left went on the tossed greens and the oil and vinegar was dressing.

Shrimp, crab and oysters were always welcome additions to any salad. Don't forget the mayonnaise. With shrimp and crab boiling, steaming or frying was acceptable but oysters were always fried for salad settings. Slaw was usually the base.

Southern slaw is always chopped cabbage, mayonnaise, a large pinch of sugar and enough grated carrots to give it some color. Make it wet.

Don't be afraid of mayonnaise, we use it in pretty near everything. Add a tablespoon to your cake batter for a fool proof moist result. It is true that mixed with cucumber pulp it will make your hair shiny and soft, but it's the devil to get out. I come from a long line of Duke's users so don't tell my Mama that I've always got a jar of Miracle Whip in my purse just because that is all my husband will eat.

Learn more about this author, Betsy Young.
Click here to send author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Guide to traditional Southern salads?
We want to hear your view. Write now!