poke salad

See also: poké salad

English

Etymology 1

poke (“pokeweed”) + salad or sallet. Some speakers distinguish between the raw “salad” and the cooked “sallet”. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

A pokeweed plant, Phytolacca americana

Alternative forms

• poke salet, poke sallet, poke salat, polk salad

Pronunciation

• enPR: pōk săʹləd IPA^(key): /ˌpoʊk ˈsæləd/
• (Appalachia, traditional or obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˌpoʊk ˈsælɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

poke salad (countable and uncountable, plural poke salads)

2. A food made from boiled pokeweed leaves, which are poisonous unless cooked properly.
   • 1921, T. S. Stribling, Birthright‎^[1]:

     The Harvard man went back into the kitchen and sat down at a rickety table covered with a red-checked oil-cloth. On it were spread the spoiled ham, a dish of poke salad, a corn pone, and a pot of weak coffee.

   • 2013, Carole J. Skelly, Dictionary of Herbs, Spices, Seasonings, and Natural Flavorings‎^[2], Routledge, →ISBN:

     Whereas to most people, “salad” is made with raw greens, “poke salad” shoots and greens must be cooked, the cooking water changed and discarded several times. […] There are many documented deaths from eating improperly prepared “poke salad.”

   • 2019 October 3, Abby Carney, “How Did This Poisonous Plant Become One of the American South’s Most Long-Standing Staples?”, in Saveur‎^[3], retrieved 6 June 2023:

     Despite the fact that the kudzu-like Phytolacca americana sprouts up all across North America, poke sallet, a dish made from the plant’s slightly-less-toxic leaves, is a regional thing, popular only to Appalachia and the American South.

4. (chiefly Southern US, Appalachia) Pokeweed, the leafy plant used to make such a dish.
   • 1968, Tony Joe White (lyrics and music), “Polk Salad Annie”, in Black and White:

     If some of ya'll never been down south too much / I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this / So that you'll understand what I'm talking about / Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods, and the fields / And it looks something like a turnip green / Everybody calls it polk salad

   Synonyms: poke, pokeweed, pocan (see more at pokeweed)

Etymology 2

poke salad/bowl

poke (“cubed raw fish”) + salad

Alternative forms

• poké salad

Pronunciation

• enPR: pō'kā săʹləd IPA^(key): /ˌpoʊ.keɪ ˈsæləd/

Noun

poke salad (countable and uncountable, plural poke salads)

2. A food made from diced raw fish, seasoning, diced fruit and vegetables, and sometimes rice.

   Synonym: poke bowl

   • 2017, Fodor's Southern California: with Los Angeles, San Diego, the Central Coast & the Best Road Trips‎^[4], Fodor's Travel, →ISBN:

     […] a wide range of creative seafood dishes (the Hawaiian-style poke salad with ahi tuna is a local favorite).

Further reading

• poke (Hawaiian dish) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Hypernyms

• salad