“IT’S TOO HOT to cook,” I declared to my two young children last week as the whole country sweltered in the record-breaking temperatures, “so, I’m just going to make a salad for dinner.”

And with those words, I was immediately transported back to my own childhood days of the 80s and 90s when my mum would say the same phrase and dish up the now infamous and much-loved ‘Mammy Salad.’

For the uninitiated, this salad was a staple in households up and down the country when the mercury rose high enough. While it varied slightly from kitchen to kitchen, it generally had the same basic ingredients.

One constant was that you had to have butterhead lettuce, none of that iceberg stuff and certainly none of your fancy rocket, spinach or micro leaves. There was also always ham, sometimes of the boiled variety, thickly sliced, but often it was plastic packet ham, rolled up into cylinders to make it look that bit fancier.

There was always a bit of potato salad, because what Irish dinner in the 80s was complete without some sort of potato making an appearance on the plate? There were slices of tomatoes and cucumber too, as well as thick slices of cheddar, and the placement of these was important to keep up the fancy pretence, but when it came to scallions, those tended to be plonked on whole for some unknown reason.

A few balls of beetroot, either pickled or boiled, as well as a dollop of coleslaw and the essential plop of salad cream (never mayo or anything as exotic as Caesar dressing), made up the last little flourishes. Plus, you’d get maybe soft rolls or some fresh brown bread on the side with........

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