Macedonia (food)

Macedonia or macédoine is a salad composed of small pieces of fruit or of vegetables.

Fruit macedonia or "Macedonia de frutas" is a fruit salad and is a common dessert in Spain [ [http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/travel/article720840.ece "Make time for Macedonia"] , "The Times" January 28, 2006] , France, Italy and Latin America.

Vegetable macedonia or "Macédoine de légumes" nowadays is usually a cold salad or hors d'oeuvre of diced vegetables, in France often including red beans. It is sometimes mixed with mayonnaise combined with aspic stock, making it essentially the same as a vegetarian Russian salad. "Macédoine de légumes" is also a hot vegetable dish consisting of the same vegetables served with butter. [Larousse Gastronomique]

According to the etymologist Juan Antonio Cincunegui, the word "Macedonia" was popularised at the end of the 18th Century to refer to mixed fruit salad, ["La palabra en el tiempo", "Nuevo Siglo", 24 November 2002, Buenos Aires, Argentina] . It is sometimes said that it refers to the ethnic mixture in Ottoman 19th century Macedonia, but the chronology and contemporary sources do not support this interpretation. "Macedoine" can be used of any medley of unrelated things, not necessarily edible. [Alan Davidson, "The Oxford Companion to Food", Oxford, 1999. ISBN 0-19-211579-0. Littré. Larousse du XIXe. OED "s." "macedoine" gives 1740 as the earliest French usage; the on-line edition (as of December 27, 2006) refers to the derivation from Alexander as "not fully established". The earliest English uses are from Henry Luttrell's poetry, in 1820; and his notes to the revised edition.]

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