9

Livelihood Education
Cookery
Prepare Salad and Dressing

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 Lesson

1 Perform Mise ‘en Place

Mise’ En Place (pronounced meez ahn plahs) is a French term which means
setting everything in place and organizing all the materials and ingredients before
preparing foods.

What is it?
By doing a little preparatory work before you begin cooking, you can save yourself a
lot of time and seamlessly move through the steps of your recipe.

Another benefit of using mise en place is to stay organized. By getting all your
equipment and ingredients in one place, you will not be going back and forth across
the kitchen grabbing what you need to cook your meal. In addition, you will know if
you are missing anything,

Why Practice Effective Mise en Place?

• Saves time by having everything ready to combine

• Eliminates the chance of culinary disasters that occur from lack of preparation
• Saves space on counters

Importance of Mise en place

• Mise en place is easy. Being organized and prepared in the kitchen saves time and
frustration.
• Trying to multi-task between ingredient preparation and cooking could be
a recipe for disaster.

How to Practice Mise en place

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Step 1
Read the entire recipe. What do you need to make this product?

Step 2
Gather all your ingredients, utensils, and equipment needed
Check that all equipment is clean before food preparation

Step 3
Prepare your workspace.
● Prepare sanitation bucket.
● Prepare wash stations.
● Locate trash receptacles for waste food waste/scraping (no disposals in house!).
● Clear counters of unnecessary items.

Step 4
One by one, wash, cut, dice, chop, and measure all your ingredients.

Step 5
Place them into appropriately sized dishes, bowls, and containers for easy grabbing

Step 6
Set your ingredients around your cooking station for better accessibility.

Step 7
Begin cooking.
Clean as you go to help with time management!

Techniques used in pre-preparation

Breaking down the raw ingredients into the required form is called ‘pre-preparation’.
Following are a few pre-preparation techniques:

⮚ Washing
⮚ Peeling and scraping
⮚ Paring
⮚ Cutting
⮚ Grating
⮚ Grinding
⮚ Mashing
⮚ Sieving

Importance of Selecting and Using Correct Equipment in Preparing Salad and

Dressings

Fitting cooking equipment helps in the fast-paced processing of food. Everyone has
heard the saying, “the right tool for the right job” and “you are only as good as your
tools.” These sayings are very true when it comes to the choice and use of cooking
equipment. The quality of the cooking equipment that you choose to use is as
outstanding as the tools themselves when it comes to work and food quality. Given
that there is a wide variety of cooking equipment required for an even more extensive
range of dishes, it is essential to make sure that the right types and quality meet
your kitchens needs.

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These are the tools, equipment and utensils needed in preparing salads and
dressings with their functions and illustrations.

Name of
Uses/Functions Illustration
tools/equipment
Mixing bowl It is a deep bowl that is particularly well
suited for mixing ingredients together in.
It comes in many materials such as
stainless steel, ceramic, glass, and
plastic.
Knives These are good quality knives with sharp,
sturdy stainless-steel blades and with
handles that are securely attached and
that feel perfectly comfortable in your
hand.
Cutting boards The choices of cutting boards are the
wooden or blocks and acrylic cutting
boards. When preparing a recipe that
contains both meat (or poultry or
seafood) and vegetables requiring
cutting, use one board exclusively for
vegetables and the other exclusively for
the raw meat to avoid
cross-contamination.
Peelers It is a kitchen tool consisting of a slotted
metal blade attached to a handle that is
used to remove the outer skin or peel of
certain vegetables, potatoes, carrots, and
fruits such as apples and pears.

Citrus zesters A kitchen zester is approximately four

inches long, with a handle and a curved
metal end, the top of which is perforated
with a row of round holes with sharpened
rims. To operate, the zester is pressed with
moderate force against the fruit and
drawn across its peel. The rims cut the
zest from the pith underneath.
Grater/Shredder It is a kitchen utensil used to grate foods
(Also known as a into fine pieces. It was invented by
shredder) François Boullier in 1540s.

Grill Pan It is used to broil or grill salad toppings.

Salad spinner It is used to hold just washed salad leave

in a slotted basket that is made to spin by
hand and thus fling all the water off the
leaves into the outer container.

Salad servers These are “salad sets” with big salad

bowls, serving bowls and servers. Select
materials having enough surfaces to
really grasp the ingredients of salad no
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matter how slippery and thus making
tossing easier.
 Lesson

2 Classifications of Salad

Salad is any various dishes consisting of raw greens, vegetables and toppings. It is
served with dressing or small pieces of food, or usually mixed with a dressing or set
in gelatin. The easiest way to establish where salads fit in the scheme of things is to
classify them according to:
● their function in the meal; and
● ingredients used.

Classifications of Salad according to their function in the meal:

Description Illustration
1. Appetizer It stimulates appetite which has
salad fresh, crisp ingredients; tangy
flavorful dressing; and attractive,
appetizing appearance. It looks
appealing because of flavorful foods
like cheese, ham, salami shrimp and
crabmeat. Crisp raw or lightly
cooked vegetables can also be
added.
www.bettycrocker.com
2. Accompaniment salads must
Accompaniment balance and harmonize with the rest
salad of the meal, like any other side dish.
Don’t serve potato salad at the same
meal at which you are serving
French Fries or another starch.
Sweet fruit salads are rarely
appropriate as accompaniment
except with such items as ham or
pork.
www.recipeofhealth.com

3. Side dish Salads should be light and flavorful,

salads not too much vegetable salads are
often good choices. Heavier salads
such as macaroni or high protein
salads containing seafood, cheese
are less appropriate, unless the
main course is light.
www.pinterest.com

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 4. Main It should be large enough to serve
course salad as a full meal and should contain a
substantial portion of protein. Meat,
poultry and seafood salads as well
as egg salad and cheese are popular
choices.

Main course salads should

offer enough variety of flavors and
textures in addition to the protein www.wickedspatula.com
and salad platter or fruits.

5. Separate These salads must be very light

course salads without filling. Rich, heavy
dressings such as sour cream and
mayonnaise should be avoided.
Light salads are serve after the
main course to cleanse the palate,
refresh the appetite and provide a
break before dessert.
www.crecipe.com
6. Dessert Dessert salads are usually sweet
salads and may contain items such as
fruits, sweetened gelatin, nuts and
cream.

www.brit.co

Classifications of Salad according to ingredients used:

1. Green salads – must be fresh, clean, crisp and cold

and well drained. Moisture and air are necessary to
keep greens crisp.
a) Leaves wilt because they lose moisture. Crispness can
be restored by washing and refrigerating. The moisture
that clings to the leaves after thorough draining is
usually enough.
b) Air circulation is essential so do not washed greens
too tightly or pack too firmly. Refrigerate in colanders
covered with clean damp towels, or in specially designed
perforated plastic bins. These protect from drying while
allowing air circulation

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2. Vegetable, Grain Legumes and

Pasta Salads - vegetable salads are salads whose

main ingredients are vegetables other than lettuce or
other leafy greens. Starchy items such as grains,
pastas and dried legumes can also form the body of a
salad. Raw or cooked vegetables are usually added to
the starch items to enhance the color, flavor and
nutritional balance of the salad. Protein items such as
poultry, meat, seafood and cheese maybe added to
vegetables and starch salads.

3. Bound salads – are mixture of foods that are held

together or bound with a dressing usually a thick
dressing like mayonnaise. The term bound is most
often used for traditional mixtures of cooked protein,
starch and vegetables items with mayonnaise like
chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad and potato salad.

4. Fruit Salads – contain fruits as their main

ingredients, like appetizer salads or dessert salads.

5. Composed Salads – made by arranging two or

more elements attractively on a plate. They are
called composed because the components are
arranged on the plate rather than being mixed
together. They are elaborate and can be substantial
in size, usually served as main courses or fruit
courses rather than accompaniments or side dishes.

6. Gelatin Salads – most gelatin products are made

with sweetened prepared mixes with artificial color
and flavor. But some professional cook used to
prepare salads using unflavored gelatin relying on
fruit juices and other ingredients for flavour (K12
TLE-Cookery 9, First Edition, 2016).