fruit salad with custard and milkmaid

fruit salad with custard and milkmaid

In botany, a fruit is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, one or more ovaries, and in some cases accessory tissues. Fruits are the means by which these plants disseminate seeds. Many of them that bear edible fruits, in particular, have propagated with the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition, respectively; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food.[1] Fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world’s agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.

In common language usage, “fruit” normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of a plant that are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, bananas, and lemons. On the other hand, the botanical sense of “fruit” includes many structures that are not commonly called “fruits”, such as bean pods, corn kernels, wheat grains, and tomatoes.[2][3]

The section of a fungus that produces spores is also called a fruiting body.[4]
A salad is a dish consisting of small pieces of food mixed with a sauce.[1][2] Salads can be based around a wide variety of foods including vegetables, fruits, and cooked meat, eggs, and grains. Garden salads use a base of leafy greens; they are common enough that the word salad alone often refers specifically to garden salads. Other types include bean salad, tuna salad, fattoush, Greek salad, and somen salad.

The sauce used to a flavor a salad is commonly called a salad dressing; well-known types include ranch, Thousand Island, and vinaigrette.

Most salads are served cold, although some, such as south German potato salad, are served warm. Some consider the warmth of a dish a factor that excludes it from the salad category calling the warm mixture a casserole, a sandwich topping or more specifically, name it for the ingredients which comprise it.

Salads may be served at any point during a meal, such as:

Appetizer salads, light salads to stimulate the appetite as the first course of the meal.
Side salads, to accompany the main course as a side dish.
Main course salads, usually containing a portion of heartier fare, such as chicken breast or slices of beef.
Dessert salads, sweet versions often containing fruit, gelatin and/or whipped cream.