The Tastes, Oh How They Change

01As time goes on, peoples tastes in all things change. Fashion, music, art, religion, and of course, food. For whatever reason, the things that people like, or crave change, sometimes drastically. Being a chef, I find the changes in the public's tastes in foods fascinating. How certain dishes rise and fall out of favor. So that brings me to a long-time favorite of past times...Perfection Salad.

Perfection Salad is a fabulous creation of Aspic (or gelatin) en-robing an eclectic mix of raw vegetables. Things like celery, carrots, olives, peppers, onions, just about anything else that may have been at hand in the kitchen. For an incredibly long time the salad was a popular side dish. As far back as 1905, there were published recipes for it.

So it begs to be asked, what changed in the publics tastes that let this gelified concoction fall from grace? I certainly don't know, but I think it could have to do with the fact that all of a sudden in America gelatin was only palatable if it is fruit flavored. I agree with the general assessment of today, there is nothing attractive in good ol' Perfection Salad

Even though I am always looking through old cookbooks, trying to find recipes that have passed to the wayside, I think this one is not ready to come back quite yet.