How to Make Traditional Ambrosia Salad this Holiday Season?

Answer 1

Ever wondered about all those sweet offerings on your holiday table? You know, the sweet potatoes swimming in a brown sugar glaze and topped with a pillow of marshmallows, or the cranberry sauce with just a hint of orange to add zest to the sweet/tart flavor of the cranberries. There's a long tradition of serving sweet dishes along with the traditional fowl, ham, stuffing and mashed potatoes of a large holiday mean. Of all the sweet indulgences on your table this holiday season, the ambrosia salad is arguably the most colorful and festive, though.

Although individual recipes vary, this sweet fruit salad looks as good as it tastes. Food historians believe Americans started serving sweet fruit salads, the precursors of the modern ambrosia salad, around the mid19th century. The ambrosia salad itself was first created a little later, probably at the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century. It was distinguished by the addition of that most exotic of ingredients -- coconut, which was becoming more abundant in the U.S. It gave the salad a distinctive texture that still managed to showcase the flavors of the individual fruits. Care to guess the first cousin of the ambrosia salad? We'll give you a hint. It contains both apples and raisins. If you guessed the Waldorf salad, you're right.

In the 1930s, exotic ingredients like pineapple, bananas and coconut were hugely popular. Since many ambrosia salad recipes contain all three ingredients, it's no surprise ambrosia salad started appearing in many of the recipe books of the period and later.

If you plan on making a traditional ambrosia salad this year, you'll achieve the best results by reserving the bananas and preparing the recipe a day ahead. Just before serving, fold in the bananas. They'll retain their texture, and the sauce will be rich and flavorful from having had time to mellow.

Here's a simple but classic ambrosia salad recipe you'll want to use year after year.

Classic Ambrosia Salad Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 can mandarin Oranges, drained (about 11 oz.)
• 1 jar Maraschino cherries, halved and drained (about 6 oz.)
• 1 large banana, sliced
• 1 can pineapple chunks, drained (about 15 oz.)
• 1 cup marshmallows (miniatures)
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 pint sour cream
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine mandarin oranges, cherries, pineapple, marshmallows and coconut.
2. In a second bowl, combine the sour cream, brown sugar and salt. Stir to incorporate.
3. Fold the sour cream mixture into the fruit.
4. Refrigerate for 24 hours.
5. An hour or so before serving, fold sliced banana into the salad.

Recipe serves 6