I can remember eating gelatin salads that contained vegetables when I was a child, so was intrigued when I came across a hundred-year-old recipe for Combination Cabbage Salad. The salad actually is a gelatin salad that contains shredded cabbage, chopped celery, and chipped pimento. It is made using unflavored gelatin. The recipe only called for 1/2 cup of sugar, while calling for 1 cup vinegar and the juice of a lemon. The result was a salad that was very tart and tangy.
The recipe suggests serving the salad with whipped cream that has a little salad dressing stirred into it. I used Ceasar dressing. This added to the overall tartness of the salad.
This salad is very old-fashioned–and definitely very different from modern sweet, fruit-flavored, gelatin salads, but I enjoyed it. The salad was refreshingly tart on a hot summer day – though if I made it again I think that I’d skip the whipped cream topping. The whipped cream and salad dressing mixture amplified the sourness of this dish, and overwhelmed the other ingredients.
Here’s the original recipe:
I skipped the suggestion to mold this gelatin salad in teacups, and went right to the suggestion to put it in a pan – though I actually used a square, flat baking dish.
This recipe required lots of interpretation on my part. I have no idea how much one-half package of Larkin Gelatin would be, so I added up all the liquids and estimated that this recipe calls for approximately 5 2/3 cups of liquid. My rule of thumb is to use one packet of unflavored gelatin for each 2 cups of liquid, so I used 3 packets. That worked well.
I don’t know how much 1/4 can of pimientos would be. I used 2 tablespoons of chopped pimento.
I put a little salad dressing in the whipped cream. I’m curious about what type of dressing the recipe author used. I used Ceasar dressing because I had it on hand – though that’s probably not very authentic when making a hundred-year-old recipe. If I made this recipe again, I skip the salad dressing (and probably would also skip the whipped cream).
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Combination Cabbage Salad (Cabbage and Celery Gelatin)
3 packets (0.25 ounce) unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup water + 4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
2 cups cabbage, shredded
1 1/2 cups celery, chopped
2 tablespoons pimento, chopped
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (if desired)
2 teaspoons salad dressing (if desired) – I used Ceasar salad dressing, though think that a sweeter dressing might be better.)
Put 1/2 cup cold water in a bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin on top of the water, and let soak for 5 minutes.
Put 4 cups water, the sugar, and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add the gelatin that has been soaked in water. Bring back to a boil while stirring constantly until the gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the vinegar and lemon juice. If needed, strain. Cool slightly, then stir in the cabbage, celery, and pimento. Mold or pour into a dish or bowl. (Use a fairly flat dish, if you plan to cut the gelatin into squares to serve. A 9″ X 9″ baking dish would work well.) Refrigerate until firm.
If desired, serve with whipped cream. Whip the cream until peaks form, then stir the salad dressing into the whipped cream. Put a dollop of the whipped cream on top of each serving.
I remember my grandmother making something similar to this. I also remember not liking it as a child. The older recipes are interesting. 🙂
It’s nice to hear that you enjoy reading about the older recipes. There may be a reason why some foods have gone out of style over the past hundred years. 🙂
Hehe! Thanks for the nudge to my memory! I hated this stuff – my grandmother would make it and it was awful to me as a child. I can recall my first experience clearly. It was at Christmas because that’s when the only fresh vegetables available were cabbage and celery! My grandmother would make it during the summer too but she’d add cauliflower and green peppers and carrots too. And it was still awful!
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some old memories – even if they weren’t particularly good ones. Thank for sharing. The foods people were much more seasonal years ago than they are now.
My mother made a variant of this using lemon Jell-o, finely shredded cabbage, finely chopped celery and onion, sometimes she would add crushed pineapple to it. I always liked it. I wouldn’t care for the original you made – too sour for me.
I like the idea of using lemon Jell-o as the basis for making a similar recipe.
Oh, I remember those salads at our school lunch. I don’t remember anyone thinking it was a favorite!
Good detective work Sheryl!
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back memories of school lunches –even if they weren’t particularly good memories. Thanks for sharing.
I think you did a fine job of interpreting this recipe. Since the object is to have your family eat it, I’ll spare myself the trouble. It was fun to read about it, though.
Good decision – though I’m glad you enjoyed reading the post.
Yes, I’m sure this tasted very different from the green Jello version that I remember from childhood.
In my opinion the green jello version is much better. This seems like an earlier version of putting vegetables in gelatin, that morphed into using green or yellow jello by mid-century.
Probably so!
Not sure I would like the gelatin in it, but I would like the cabbage,celery,and pimentos just tossed together with a dressing.
Good suggestion
Very unusual for today’s menus. We should look back at old recipes more often – especially with inflation.
Agree- As you probably can tell, I love looking at old recipes. 🙂
As you can see, so do I…
https://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com/?s=recipes
Thanks for sharing. Some of the WWII era recipes looked absolutely delicious. They figured out ways to make tasty dishes even though they had to cope with rationing of some key ingredients.
Exactly, and if inflation doesn’t stop climbing soon, we’ll be in the same shape.
Looks good. Sounds like a nice break for these ever-so hot days. 🌞
Cool gelatin salads can be good on hot days.
Great blog. So interesting 🤔 reading about old recipes. Some are hits and some are flops but all bring back memories.