Mesclun Mix

Mesclun Mix is not one single type of kind of salad green, but rather, as the name states, a mix.

The contents of the mix will vary. It often contains leaves such as baby spinach, curly endive, dandelion, lamb’s lettuce, mizuna, purslane, red chicory, red oak leaf lettuce, rocket, and romaine. Generally, it will be a balance of sweet and bitter greens.

You can buy also packages of Mesclun Mix seeds for your garden.

History Notes

Mesclun Mix has been made for hundreds of years around Nice in Southern France. The mix traditionally was rocket, chervil, endive and lettuce. The mix first appeared in North America in the mid-1980s. By 1998, a New York Times food critic, Marian Burros, complained that supermarkets were already “dumbing down” the mixture.

Language Notes

“Mesclun” is pronounced “mes kloon”. The word “mesclun” comes from a French dialect word “mesclumo” (a dialect word around Nice, France), which means a mix.