The Old-School Salad That Might Not Be Worth Its Affordable Price Tag

With high grocery prices across the country, and tariffs impacting everyone, it's not surprising that many Americans are looking for more affordable recipes to work into their everyday meals. That's why an old-school chilled dish, Southern pear salad, may have caught your eye while leafing through a cookbook. This sweet side dish is quite affordable, as its base ingredient, canned pears, is often much cheaper than fresh fruit. Since they're shelf-stable, too, they can be purchased in large quantities. But remember, an affordable dish is a rip-off if you don't actually eat it, and Southern pear salad just might be too off-putting for most people to qualify as a bargain, or even as a feasible menu addition.

Why is that? Well, the blend of ingredients in Southern pear salad is, to be honest, a bit weird. This old-fashioned dish is certainly easy to make, as it calls for simply removing pear halves from a can, placing them over lettuce, and adding a dollop of mayo and some shredded cheese — maraschino cherry optional. That being said, even if you enjoy pears, lettuce, cheese, mayonnaise, and maraschino cherries as ingredients, the combination features a clash of textures and flavors that don't typically go together. This can be decidedly unappetizing; even more so than the infamous pineapple-mayo sandwich, the banana-mayo sandwich, and other once popular sandwiches people don't eat anymore. Beyond that, mayonnaise and cheese can be very high in saturated fat and calories. If those are nutritional factors you're watching, you might prefer not to mix your indulgence with a fruit whose subtle sweetness offers no satisfying counterpoint to the fat.

Even if you've decided that Southern pear salad is not for you, there are other ways to enjoy a tasty and affordable dish made with canned pears. For a more sophisticated salad with this cheap tinned fruit, a pear and candied walnut salad makes use of inexpensive staples like lettuce, canned pears, and cheese, but the addition of candied walnuts brings indulgence, flavor, and a welcome boost of protein. Alternatively, pear seafoam salad is a tasty but unconventional option and can be made with canned pears in a pinch. Canned pears, when chopped, also make a sweet addition to oatmeal or other hot breakfast cereals.

On the other hand, consider using your canned pears for a quick and easy dessert. The fruit can make a great base for a pear crumble or crisp, and using a simple streusel topping with oatmeal from your pantry as a potential topping ingredient makes this lavish-tasting dessert simple and inexpensive. If you're not looking for a hot dessert, canned pears on their own, spiced with a little cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, are an affordable and extremely quick dessert that still satisfies.