Cold fruit salads like this one are an old-fashioned piece of Americana. You can find recipes for stuffed canned peaches and pears and other so-called salads like this one in historic Southern cookbooks and of course in classics like the Joy of Cooking and The Settlement Cookbook. You don’t see them much around anymore, which is a shame because this salad is cool and refreshing—a great thing to serve for a summer lunch or as a first course for a dinner party. It may seem weird nowadays to serve canned pears with mayo, but would I waste my time with something that wasn’t good as hell? I didn’t think so.

Ingredients

　　1 16-ounce can pear halves, drained

　　1/4 cup mayonnaise

　　1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

　　6 cherries, fresh (pitted) or maraschino

　　12 to 18 large iceberg lettuce leaves, rinsed and dried

Step 1

Step 2

　　Reprinted with permission from Smokin' with Myron Mixon by Myron Dixon with Kelly Alexander, © 2011 Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.