The word “cocktail” generally brings to mind alcoholic beverages, but another definition of cocktail is ” a cold dish, often eaten at the start of a meal, consisting of small pieces of food.” According to the January, 1925 issue of American Cookery magazine, a fruit appetizer called Grapefruit Cocktail was served at many of the best hotel back then. Given this strong recommendation, I decided to make Grapefruit Cocktail.
It was easy to make. Grapefruit segments are cut into bite-sized pieces, then a little powdered sugar and juice from a jar of maraschino cherries is added. The mixture is served in an attractive serving cup or sherbet glass that is lined with lettuce and topped with a maraschino cherry.
The recommended way of serving Grapefruit Cocktail in a sherbet glass lined with lettuce makes an attractive presentation, but it has a very old-fashioned look. (When is the last time you’ve eaten fruit nested in lettuce leaves?) But the Grapefruit Cocktail was refreshing and very tasty with a nuanced burst of flavor provided by the maraschino cherry juice.
Here’s the original recipe:
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Grapefruit Cocktail
1 grapefruit
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon juice from a jar of maraschino cherries
lettuce
2 maraschino cherries
Peel the grapefruit, then divide into segments and cut each segment into thirds. Put into a bowl. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and add maraschino cherry juice; gently stir. Line serving cups or sherbet glasses with lettuce leaves, then fill with the grapefruit mixture. Garnish with a maraschino cherry on top.
That sounds very refreshing, and it’s so pretty!
It was nice. It both tasted yummy and made a nice presentation.
It’s really pretty! Today, we usually only use the term cocktail with the generic fruit cocktail. I think I might have to start using it more defined – blueberry cocktail, tropical cocktail…
Like you, I also thought of generic fruit cocktail first. When I did an online search to get a definition, I was reminded that there are also other food cocktails, such as shrimp cocktail.
The lettuce also made me think. It sounds really good, but I’m thinking about getting the last drops of juice from the lettuce.
When I made this recipe, I wasn’t sure whether we’d actually eat the lettuce, but we did, and it was tasty.
Good to hear.
And then you put the cherry on top!!!!
My dad would eat a 1/2 grapefruit every morning …..and the kicker is that he would eat it without sugar!
We would lightly salt our grapefruit half, which brings out the natural sweetness of the grapefruit better than sugar.
Come to think of it dad used salt also!
I’ve never put salt on grapefruit, though I do put salt on watermelon and cantaloupe.
Same principle; we salted watermelon and cantaloupe also.
A cherry on top makes almost anything better. Similarly to your dad, I don’t put sugar on grapefruit halves. My husband and I have a discussion from time to time about whether or not you need to cut around the edge of the grapefruit to make it easier to get the segments out. He thinks its very helpful; I tend to think that it’s not needed.
I’m not sure we can still get maraschino cherries here, They’re rather retro!
Maraschino cherries are still commonly used here to garnish many cocktails. I bought a jar to make this recipe, then remembered that I’d made a recipe for Maraschino Cherry Ice Cream years ago. I used the remainder of the jar to once again make that ice cream. It was delicious.
It looks it! But we have no ice cream maker 😒
Grapefruit without sugar is too tart for me but the powdered sugar and juice might make it sweet enough… I showed this to Sparky – he was skeptical. I might need to try it!
I really liked this recipe. That said, even with the powdered sugar, the grapefruit is still quite tart.
If the price of grapefruit ever drops into the affordable range I’ll have to give this a try – Sparky is a fan of the grapefruit!
Grapefruit was on sale here last week. That’s one reason I selected this recipe. Hopefully, it will be on sale sometime soon where you live.
I hope so! The oranges have been $1 each and they’ve been puny!
Ha!! I love this one…so retro…
It’s wonderful to hear that you enjoyed this post. It’s a fun retro recipe.
Aw, that’s charming and I bet it tastes delightful.
It was yummy.
It did have an old fashioned charming look with the lettuce leaves.
Lettuce leaves were more commonly used as the base for salads, fruit desserts, and appetizers a hundred years ago than what they are now.