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Salmagundi

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Salmagundi is defined as

  1. A mixture of chopped meat and pickled herring, with oil, vinegar, pepper, and onions.
  2. Hence, a mixture of various ingredients; an olio or medley; a potpourri; a miscellany.

There are several variant spellings of salmagundi, e.g., salamagundi being common on the internet.

Salmagundi is purportedly a meal served on pirate ships. It is a stew of anything the cook had on hand, usually consisting of chopped meat, anchovies, eggs, and onions, often arranged in rows on lettuce and served with vinegar and oil, and spiced with anything available.

The name was later corrupted to Solomon Gundy in the eighteenth century. It seems likely that the name is connected with the children’s rhyme, Solomon Grundy. Solomon Gundy retains its food connotation today as the name given to a spicy Caribbean paste made of mashed pickled-herrings, peppers and onions.