Introduction

Salads for Health was created in the 1930s by the London Life Insurance Company. The thin booklet consisting of just fifteen pages would have been distributed as a promotional item to London Life customers throughout Ontario. Along with the copy examined here that was produced around 1936, other versions with a similar focus were published between 1930 and 1935. The booklet was clearly made for women and intends to instruct them on how to preserve the vital nutrients in raw fruits and vegetables. The cookbook’s index provides an excellent summary of the different types of salad recipes presented in the book. As suggested by its title, the book is filled with several different salad recipes that are organized into six separate categories: Vegetable Salads, Fruit Salads, Fish and Meat Salads, Molded Fruit Salad, Molded Vegetable Salad, and Miscellaneous Salads. The difference between the molded and regular fruit and vegetable salads is the usage of gelatin, which allows the salad to maintain whatever form it is set in. At the back of the cookbook are several recipes for salad dressings, as well as a section that provides detailed directions and instructions about how to properly prepare and serve salads in appetizing ways.

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