The Best Salad Bowls: Wood, Ceramic and Glass Compared

JK Adams makes its bowls in Dorset, Vermont, from sustainably grown and harvested North American hardwoods. This is the 12 inch maple bowl: a simple turned shape, pale in color, with the growth rings of the tree showing across the inside.

Twelve inches is the right size for a salad for four, and maple is a dense, close-grained wood that stands up well to salad servers. It costs about the same as the imported acacia bowls that fill the category, and it is made in the United States.

Skip it if you want a dishwasher-safe bowl. JK Adams says hand wash only, and like every wood bowl it needs mineral oil or board cream from time to time to keep it from drying and cracking.

The catch. Hand wash and oil, always; pale maple also shows stains from oily or colored dressings.

Le Creuset's Multi Bowl is a deep stoneware serving bowl that the maker rates for temperatures from minus 9°F to 500°F, and for the freezer, oven, broiler, microwave and dishwasher. The glaze is non-porous and non-reactive, so vinegar and citrus dressings do not stain or flavor it.

At 3.1 quarts it holds a side salad for four or a main-course salad for two or three with room to toss. Its real advantage is range: the same bowl bakes a gratin, holds a trifle or keeps a potato salad cold on the table. White suits any table; Le Creuset's colored glazes are there if you want the bowl to be the point.

Skip it for a large party. Three quarts is a family bowl, not a buffet one, and the stoneware is heavy to pass around full.

The catch. Heavy when full, and on the small side for a crowd.

Cassia is a lead-free crystal bowl with a diagonal twist in the glass, 11 inches across and 4.5 inches high, holding 2.5 quarts. The twist catches the light from the side, and glass shows the colors of what is in it in a way that no ceramic or wood bowl can.

It is the bowl for a salad that looks good: a tomato salad in summer, a winter citrus salad, a trifle or a bowl of fruit on the sideboard. Mikasa lists it as dishwasher safe, which is unusual and welcome for crystal.

Skip it for rough daily use. Glass tolerates the dishwasher but not being knocked against the tap, and a chipped rim ends its life. At 2.5 quarts it is also smaller than it looks, so toss a leafy salad for four in the kitchen and serve it in this.

The catch. Smaller than its width suggests, and glass rims chip if knocked.

NewMoon is one of Villeroy & Boch's plainer modern collections, and this is its large salad bowl: white premium porcelain, made in Germany, 28.5 centimeters across and 10.5 centimeters deep, about 11.2 by 4.1 inches, holding 135 ounces.

The shape is wide and relatively shallow, so a salad spreads out and shows itself rather than sitting in a deep pile. It is dishwasher and microwave safe, and it matches the rest of the NewMoon range if you already set a white table with it. It weighs about 1.5 kilograms empty, so it sits steady while you toss.

Skip it if you toss vigorously. A shallow bowl is better for serving than for mixing, and a big green salad is best tossed in something deeper and brought to the table in this.

The catch. Shallow for tossing, and expensive for a plain white bowl.

Holland Bowl Mill turns its bowls in Holland, Michigan, each from a single piece of solid wood rather than glued-up staves. This one is cherry, 12 inches across and 2.75 inches deep at the edge, sized by the maker to serve up to four. Cherry deepens from pink-brown to a rich red-brown with light and age, so the bowl looks better in ten years than it does new.

The maker offers a lifetime guarantee: if the bowl cracks or warps from regular use, it will be replaced with one of similar size and finish. That is a rare promise for wood, and the reason this is the bowl to hand down. For more than four people, Holland Bowl Mill makes the same bowl at 15, 17 and 20 inches.

Skip it if you want to put it in the dishwasher. Wash it by hand with soap and warm water, dry it straight away, never let it soak, and rub it with oil once a month or whenever it looks dry. It is also shallow, so toss with a light hand.

The catch. Shallow for its width, and like all wood it needs hand washing and regular oiling.