Still, people will go with the flow, which once resulted in some very smelly salads!
A foodie convinced everyone that washing their wooden salad bowls was a bad idea—so nobody ever did. Gross!
Back in the 1930s, George Rector invented the myth that wooden salad bowls cured over time and made for some amazing salads. The truth is the salad's dressing continued to seep into the wood and caused it to rot, spoil, and turn rancid, making for a very smelly kitchen.
Rector also said to rub a clove of garlic on the bowl for the perfect flavor—unless you added too much.
The habit lasted for nearly 30 years, an entire generation of gross, smelly, rancid salads that people thought were fancy and gourmet.
Bonus fun fact: It was Rector's article is also the sole reason fresh ground pepper mills are offered on salads in fancy restaurants, and nothing else.
