The Delicious Reason Everyone Should Start 'Killing' Their Salads
Salads are expected to be crunchy, cool, and refreshing. Once served, a salad should be crispy and bright, yet there are exceptions to these rules. The killed salad is all about a hot bacon grease dressing forcing you to forget everything you thought you knew about salads. When talking about 'killing' a dish, you'd assume the dish either slayed or flopped. This dish is most definitely on the slayed side of taste in the best possible way.
Also known as kilt salad, wilted salad, or smothered salad, killed salad originated from the Appapallcian region. Many famous and beloved recipes actually have roots here, including Dolly Parton's special apple pie. Its history is not the only reason you should start making it. It's a perfectly delicious, warm, and moreish side dish, especially if accompanied with other Appallcian food like cornbread or creamed potatoes. You're probably already starting to guess why this dish is deliciously killing it.
Death to salad
As much as the name implies, a killed salad does not involve hacking your salad to death with a knife. However, the warm dressing that passes over the salad to leave it wilted could easily be interpreted as a death to the salad you thought you knew. Made with a generous amount of spring greens or lettuce, this salad is also a great way to make kale taste good. After thoroughly washing the greens, they are torn into a bowl with thinly sliced scallions.
Next, crisp up some bacon or pork pieces and lay on top of the greens, saving the fat in the skillet. The fat here is the dish's centerpiece — when mixed with vinegar, sugar, and pepper, you have a rich and slightly sweet dressing that brings all elements of this dish together. Bring these ingredients to boil with the fat and then pour over the greens.
Mix the dressing, and your greens will wilt, reaching this cooked-fresh equilibrium. The dressing balances the refreshing flavor of the greens by adding a bold flavor reminiscent of cold spring mornings. With a description like this, you can see exactly why everyone has murder on their mind in the kitchen.
Why all this killing?
The appropriate name of the killed salad also matches metaphorically with the seasonal nature of this dish. In the mountainous terrain where this dish originated, it was usually served after a winter of feasting (or most likely rationing) cold stores. This salad represents the start of a new part of the year with fresh produce and growing greens. Is this salad a symbol of the death of winter? Perhaps. Luckily, it can now be killed year-round.
While eating from purely cold stores is rarer, remnants of traditional Appalachian cuisine are still very much visible today. It left its mark on food that was popular during The Great Depression, such as potato candy, and foods that are still labeled as comfort favorites, such as chicken and dumplings. The killed salad is a gateway to this beautiful cuisine. Start with this — before long, it won't be just this dish you're killing. There will be murder once a week.