Seven-layer salad

Seven-layer salad is an American dish that includes a colorful combination of seven layers of ingredients: iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, sweet peas, hard-boiled eggs, sharp cheddar cheese, and bacon pieces. The salad is topped with a mayonnaise-based dressing and sometimes sour cream is added. It is often served in a glass bowl or large pan so the layers can be observed. The dish is often associated with potlucks, picnics, and barbecues, where a large gathering of people takes place and many people need to be fed. There are many variants of the seven-layer salad and it can be made with additional (or sometimes fewer) layers, making it (for example) an eight-layer salad instead.

Although there are many variations, the traditional seven-layer salad has remained the same for decades. The dish may have originated in the South and was called the "seven-layer pea salad" for its main layers of peas. The traditional seven-layer salad is covered with a coating of mayonnaise (and sometimes sour cream) and includes eggs and bacon. It has been said to have "helped give salads of the 1950s a bad name... when it came to health."

Popular variations on the home-made salad's ingredients include ham, mushrooms, celery, carrots, and bell peppers. The dish remains a party staple, and its impressive height and layered architecture have been adapted by some restaurant chefs, though "our mothers were stacking long before many of today's chefs were even born."