There are many sides to this colourful and, dare I say it, retro salad. If you're a fan of the movie, Edward Scissorhands, you will know what I'm talking about when I utter "ambrosia salad".
Remember that giant, heaving bowl of what looked like pink snow, which Edward Scissorhands' neighbour Joyce spooned generously into Scissorhands' mouth? A hilarious scene that may be the only association some people have with ambrosia salad.
As we begin planning our festive feasts, the ambrosia salad may be something you've overlooked. Ambrosia salad, also known as five-cup salad, was popular in Australia in the 70s, but you may consider reviving it as a Christmas dish for its refreshing mix of fruit (usually mandarin and pineapple), marshmallows, coconut and sour cream.
It's a Waldorf salad with candy added, I can love that once more.
I'm an 80s kid and during my childhood, our backyard had a bungalow and we had an esky to keep our beer cold in December. We even had an above-ground swimming pool, yet ambrosia salad was not something that I initially thought had made it to our family table.
However, during my research on this dish, I rummaged through some old photos of birthday parties and noticed a strange bowl sitting on a table next to my cousin's birthday cake. My family thought ambrosia was best eaten as a dessert and served it as a final course. And low and behold, there's actual evidence of me and my family scooping it up.
Ambrosia salad can be traced to the US, where the first records of this recipe date back to the 1800s. Its is long and exasperating. It's said that the ambrosia salad was invented as a three-ingredient salad (coconut, oranges and sugar) so that people in the US' southern states could utilise an abundance of oranges. Variations eventually morphed the salad into the lustrous five-cup salad plus so-called exotic fruits to signal class and money.
Ambrosia salad is a perfect mix of sweetness and creaminess. Source: Yi/Flickr
According to food historian Jan O'Connell, the author of , the dish came to Australia along with other American food after the world wars had ended.
Other American food included the addition of pineapple to dishes like pizza, which was "helped by a great deal of editorial in the women's magazines", O'Connell says.
Coca Cola sales took off after this. And while hot dogs were eaten in Australia as early as the 1920s, and hamburgers around the 1930s, "thanks to the influence of the visiting troops, both became much more popular after World War II."
However, O'Connell points out that American cuisine actually first arrived in Australian kitchens in the 1870s with the old-fashioned soda fountain.
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Aussie-born chef and food writer, , remembers eating ambrosia salad, or more simply, "marshmallow salad", as a child growing up in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. "Mum wasn't a marshmallow eater, so that meant they were a banned substance for us kids, so it would only be at other people's barbecues, fetes [and] take-a-plate parties popular in 1970s suburban Australia where I'd see them," Lepard says.
"Ambrosia salads were perfect for all-you-can-eat cold buffets as it could sit there looking more or less the same for days." The apples would keep their crunch in the dressing of mustard, vinegar, sugar, salt and cream, and the pineapple, orange, coconut and sometimes banana gave it a tropical appeal. "A big drawback then," he adds.
Ambrosia salads were perfect for all-you-can-eat cold buffets as it could sit there looking more or less the same for days.
Lepard thinks the ambrosia salad fell out of favour in the 1990s. "I guess to move forward we have to somewhat shun what went before, but we can rediscover it, find the good bits," he says.
"Given how many 'jellified' bits you get on top restaurant plates today, and how common it is to have fruit added to main course dishes, I don't think Ambrosia salad is so strange an idea: It's a Waldorf salad with candy added, I can love that once more."
I was lucky enough to have spent many Christmases with my friends in the US and was reintroduced to ambrosia in Kansas. With Thanksgiving just past, millions of Americans enjoyed ambrosia salad with their turkey and sweet potatoes. I know I did.
You either love the sweetness of the salad or you hate it. However, if you like cranberry sauce with turkey or apple sauce with roast pork – why not have an ambrosia salad to accompany your baked ham for Christmas?
Michelle Tchea's reinvented vintage ambrosia salad
This is a variation of the original ambrosia salad. It includes beetroot to give it that ruby-red Edward Scissorhands look. I've also included pecans for crunch. Sour cream makes it less sweet and raisins give it an Australian spin.
Makes 1 bowl
Ingredients
- 1 cup pineapple
- 1 cup grapes
- 1 cup roasted beetroot
- 1 cup mandarins
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup sour cream, but if you want to make this decadently sweet, use marshmallow fluff.
- A sprinkling of toasted pecans
- Desiccated coconut and toasted pecans (optional)
- A handful of mini marshmallows and glace cherries, if you dare (optional).
Method
- Place ingredients, except glace cherries, in a giant bowl and toss gently.
- Serve with glace cherries on top.
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