Southern Pear Salad – Southern Chunk

6 de May de 2023

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This Southern Pear Salad is a classic recipe that mixes canned pears, mayo, cheese, and cherries right into a dish that’s as quirky as it’s scrumptious.

You realize we southerners are kinda recognized for slapping the phrase “salad” on a bunch of issues which are clearly not salads. Issues like ambrosia, pineapple walnut salad, and strawberry pretzel salad immediately come to thoughts. As I’ve mentioned earlier than, I feel it makes us really feel higher about consuming them.

Nicely, people, of all of the bizarre salads we lay declare to down right here, this one proper right here might be one of many quirkiest. Now, granted, there’s lettuce concerned right here. So, I feel the salad terminology is extra applicable on this case than a few of the others. Nevertheless, this random assemblage of elements is simply plain bizarre.

This recipe tops lettuce with canned pear halves, mayonnaise, cheddar cheese, and a maraschino cherry.

However as unusual because it sounds, almost each true southerner I do know immediately knew precisely what I used to be speaking about after I mentioned “pear salad.” It was a dish that was commonplace at potlucks, church dinners, and household gatherings. Lot’s of parents bear in mind this being a “firm” dish. You realize, a type of fancy recipes we solely served to visitors.

What’s the historical past of pear salad?

In doing some research, I can’t discover a clear origin for the bizarre dish. It appears it grew to become common within the 50s, however the remaining stays a thriller – at the least to me. My associates at Southern Dwelling, It’s a Southern Factor, and Southern Meals and Enjoyable share some data in regards to the recipe as properly.

And I’ll readily admit, I had by no means tried this dish till I began engaged on it for this put up – regardless of seeing it in every single place after I was a toddler. Now, y’all know I really like me some mayo, however one thing in regards to the canned pears simply turned me off.

However as a part of my dedication to my craft, I all the time promise the recipes posted listed below are examined and tasted quite a few occasions earlier than they make it to the weblog. So I tasted it. And truthfully, it wasn’t almost as dangerous as I anticipated it to be. The pear wasn’t as candy as I assumed it might be and the cheese and mayo truthfully kinda labored. The cherry wasn’t precisely my favourite half, however I get its inclusion – at the least for colour and an try to “fancy” this dish up a bit.

What are the elements for pear salad?

Fairly truthfully, pear salad is an easy mixture of lettuce, canned pears, mayonnaise, and cheddar cheese. Every little stack is garnished with a vivid purple maraschino cherry.

Can pear salad be made forward of time?

That is a type of issues that doesn’t profit from a while within the fridge. In actual fact, as this dish sits, water is leached out of the pears and it kind of turns into a slippery mess with the mayo sliding off and the pears slipping across the lettuce.

So, I like to recommend this dish be made inside a couple of hours of serving. However, it’s really easy to make, that shouldn’t be an issue. Serve it instantly after making or retailer within the fridge for as much as 2 hours.

Ingredient FAQ

Can I exploit one thing apart from pears?

In response to some people, they’ve used canned pineapple rings as an alternative of the pears. In my thoughts, this is sensible as a result of I bear in mind my mother consuming pineapple sandwiches with gooey white bread, mayo, and canned pineapple.

Can I exploit one thing apart from mayo?

A fast chat with my pal Donya over at ASouthernSoul.com revealed that her household made the identical dish however swapped the mayo for cottage cheese.

What sort of lettuce ought to I exploit?

I feel iceberg is essentially the most conventional alternative, however I used some fairly bibb lettuce for these pictures. Leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, romaine, and even endive ought to work as properly.

Recipe Card