Sometimes recipe titles in old cookbooks do not provide much information about a recipe. For example, I recently came across a recipe for Surprise Salad in a hundred-year-old church cookbook. When I read the recipe, I was surprised to discover (maybe that’s why it’s called Surprise Salad) that it was a fruit salad that called for canned pineapple slices, canned peach halves, and fresh strawberries with marshmallows and a dollop of whipped cream for good measure. The salad is served on lettuce leaves. The ingredients are stacked with a focus on presentation.
I enjoyed the salad (though in some ways- especially if I skipped the lettuce – it seems more like a dessert than a salad). I would make it again. Occasionally, I have friends over and serve a meal based on hundred-year-old recipes. Surprise Salad would be perfect for one of those meals. The ingredients and presentation are different from modern recipes, which could lead to a fun conversation, but I also think that they would enjoy it,
Here’s the original recipe:
I tried dipping the whole strawberries that go on the top in powdered sugar, but I did not like the way it looked so I washed the powdered sugar off the berries.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Surprise Salad
1/2 cup strawberries + 3 small strawberries
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup miniature marshmallows, each cut into two pieces
lettuce leaves
3 slices of canned pineapple
3 canned peach halves
1/4 cup whipped cream
Cut the strawberries in half (reserving 3 small strawberries that are left whole). If the berries are large, cut each berry into several pieces. Put the cut berries and cut marshmallows in a small bowl, then add sugar and gently stir to distribute the sugar. Set aside.
For each serving, arrange lettuce leaves on plate, then put a pineapple slice on the lettuce. Place a peach half (with the center up) in the center of the pineapple slice. Fill the peach cavity with the strawberry and marshmallow mixture. Keep the strawberry/marshmallow mixture as level as possible to make a firm foundation for the whole strawberry that goes on the very top. Top with a spoonful of whipped cream, then garnish with a small whole strawberry.
Reminds me a little of what my sister used to make: lettuce with a pineapple or pear slice, mayonnaise and shredded cheddar.
It does sound like a similar idea. Salads featuring canned fruits on lettuce used to be more popular than they are now.
Maybe you are right! Strawberries were much smaller then, we’ve bred them to be almost plum sized now!
When my children were small, I remember picking small wild strawberries in an overgrown field near our house. Those tiny strawberries would be perfect for this recipe.
Maybe the surprise was the availability of all these canned fruits along with the fresh strawberries? I’ve seen other recipes with surprise in the title that left me scratching my head.
It’s a bit of a mystery to me, too. One thought – Maybe I should have used more whipped cream and totally covered up the strawberries in the center of the peach. The strawberries are relatively large compared to the cavity and to have a significant amount of strawberries they ended up sticking way above the cavity, but maybe if I’d used fewer strawberry pieces or made them much smaller, I could have covered them up and created a “surprise.”
I think I remember having that combo (with a maraschino cherry on top in the 50’s).
A maraschino cherry would work well on top.
My family would be surprised if I served this salad!
LOL
🙂 My husband is used to getting surprised by the hundred-year-old recipes I make.
It is interesting it is called a surprise, when you can see everything in it! That made me smile. Good call on washing off the strawberry–that would remind me of a strawberry with mold on it, which happens a lot around here!
Yuck! Now that you said that, I’m definitely glad I washed the powdered sugar off the strawberry.
it’s hilarious isn’t it?:). I’ve been watching cooking videos where they make these ‘salads’. So funny.
sherry
I hadn’t realized their were videos about making salads similar to this one. I’ll have to look for them.
I have been watching That Midwestern mom on YouTube and Facebook. She is hilarious and makes lots of these salads.
sherry
Thanks for the info. I’m going to check it out next.
Yep. The ubiquitous lettuce leaf! Seemed to be a way of announcing that you were high class – to use a lettuce leaf and to use the expensive canned fruit. Imagine serving this in December with the maraschino cherry on top… All that fruit in December would have definitely been a “surprise”!
I think you are exactly right. A hundred years ago canned fruit was expensive and considered to be special, while today that isn’t the case.
My suggestion for the surprise? At first glance I thought it was the marshmallow. Or did the marshmallow disintegrate when added to the sugar and strawberry?
If I found a marshmallow under the whipped cream, I’d be pleasantly surprised. What a cute salad for a child. The lettuce leaf makes it look pretty.
The marshmallows got soft, but didn’t disintegrate. If I look very closely, I can see a marshmallow in the photo, but it basically looks about like the whipped cream, so it is very hard to see. It would be a fun salad for a child.