"A Plus Factor of Spicy Difference": Jambalaya Salad

I can’t resist another recipe from The World At Your Table (the magnum opus of the Essex Meat Packers of Hamilton, Ontario, circa 1968).

This one uses their Essex Jambalaya. I’ll bet you didn’t even know they could can jambalaya, did you? Well, there’s no end to the meat products they could put into a can.

Jambalaya Salad

1 15 oz. can Essex Jambalaya
6 cups cooked macaroni
1 chopped apple
3 chopped dill pickles
6 Tbs chopped Swiss cheese
2 Tb salad dressing

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Sprinkle with dried Parsley and decorate with watercress. An economical dinner with a plus factor of spicy difference.

I guess it will be economical. Think of all the leftovers you’ll have. Unfortunately there is no photo of the finished Jambalaya Salad (and we can agree, can’t we, that those are two words that should never come together in a recipe title), but look at the jambalaya photo above and try to imagine it with the addition of macaroni, pickles, Swiss cheese and salad dressing.

“Spicy difference” is about right - it will be spicy, and it certainly is different. Notice how they don’t actually say it is any good.

Real jambalaya is very good, though. It is the Louisiana Creole version of paella, and usually includes chicken and sausage, vegetables and tomatoes, with the addition of seafood, rice and stock. The Cajun version omits the tomatoes. The name either comes from jambon (French for ham) + à la ya (ya being supposedly a West African word for rice) or from the order given to an inn cook to “Jean, balayez!” (”sweep something together”) for a traveller. The last version is given in John Mariani’s American Dictionary of Food and Drink, which is a terrific book.

For some real jambalaya, may I point you to some excellent Foodie Blogroll sites:

Creole Jambalaya at Now We’re Cookin’

Chicken, Tasso and Andouille Jambalaya at Culinary Infatuation

Jambalaya at Handle Like Candy

There are loads of others too, sorry I couldn’t list you all!

Just don’t ever mix pickles and apples and salad dressing and canned jambalaya together, OK? I mean, I know it’s all about “sweeping something together” - but not everything you happen to lay eyes on on the kitchen counter, that’s all I’m saying.