Frozen salad

1927 illustration of salad being set to freeze, top center

Frozen salads are made by freezing ingredients in a mold and serving them in glassware or in slices, often over a leaf of lettuce. Until the 1920s in America, frozen salads were consumed by the few who could afford expensive restaurant visits or large home refrigeration systems. As electric refrigerators made freezing at home more accessible the dish gained popularity, helped by their convenience and enclosed presentation, which was valued in an era when the salad was perceived to be a mess in need of taming. A range of frozen salads were eaten containing meats, fruits or vegetables, often with pantry staples such as cream and mayonnaise. Popular examples included frozen ginger ale and pear salads, frozen tomato salads, and frozen cheese salads. Frozen fruit salads continue to be eaten today.

Popular uptake

Frozen salads, a combination of ingredients frozen in a tray and served in slices, ^[1] gained popularity in 1920s America as domestic freezing technology became widely available for the first time. ^[2] To this point, frozen salads had existed, but they were only readily available to those who could afford and host large salt and ice freezers and to those who could visit the expensive hotels and restaurants that would serve them. ^[3] As households purchased electric freezers for their improvements over iceboxes which could not freeze or maintain cool temperatures consistently, ^[2] the salads were seen as attractive as a result of their prior exclusivity. ^[4]

Frozen salads were also valued for the ways they contained foods, presenting them in a controlled manner, restrained fully in their geometric receptacles. ^[3] This accorded with the values of the era as presented by home economists, who abhorred mess and conceived of the salad as necessary for nutrients but in need of containment through presentation and ideally sweetening. The salad could be brought further under control by choosing canned produce over fresh, which was perceived as more hygienic and unable to be contaminated by dirt. ^[4] As dishes grew less recognisable as salads, lettuce leaves were employed to justify the categorization. ^[5]

As they became eaten more often in the home, frozen salads remained available for purchase. Lunch counters and soda fountains served frozen salads in single portions for dine-in patrons, and sold larger portions to be taken home. By 1937, a quart of frozen salad could be purchased for $1 (equivalent to $22in 2024). ^{[6] [7]}

Types

1927 illustration of Tomato Frappé served with a meal of beefsteak

Refrigerator companies and others published cookbooks with recipes for frozen salads. Among these, frozen fruit salads and frozen cheese salads were among the most popular, ^{[1] [8]} sometimes appearing combined with the addition of American cheese or cream cheese to frozen fruit salad recipes. One version of the frozen cheese salad was published in a 1924 Seattle compilation cookbook as "Fruit and Flower Mission Frozen Cheese Salad": ^[8]

Mix the cream cheese with the mayonnaise and whipped cream. Stir in the [jarred] pimientos, peppers, and pecans. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and paprika. Pack into a mold (note: individual serving molds are fun) and freeze until firm. Dip the mold in warm water and turn out on a platter. Serve with mayonnaise.

Other popular frozen salads of the era included a ginger ale and pear salad, ^[1] as well as ones of meat—chicken, salmon, tuna, and crabmeat—and vegetables, such as asparagus and celery. Within such savory versions, cream and mayonnaise were often present. A frozen tomato-based salad popular at the time was named tomato frappé, loosely related to the concept of a salad. Making it typically involved a process of cooking tomatoes and onions and flavorings such as bay leaves, before straining and then freezing the ingredients. ^[8] Frozen tomato salads remained popular in the following decades: in 1942 socialite Wallis Simpson included a recipe for it as a component of a "typical southern" dinner, ^[9] and later in the decade the author and poet Julia Cooley Altrocchi listed it as an element in a menu for a "Savory and Exotic Italian Formal Dinner". ^[10] The association with Southern United States cooking could be seen again in 1950, when Chicago and Southern Air Lines's food and beverage director described a "plantation frozen tomato salad" as among the airline's most popular dishes. ^{[11] [a]}

Fruit salad

Frozen fruit salads were especially popular in households without domestic workers who wanted to entertain guests. Dishes could be prepared ahead of time, mixing canned fruits such as pineapples, apricots, pears, peaches and maraschino cherries with whipped cream and mayonnaise and freezing them in hemispheric, rectangular, or cubic containers. At dinner, they could be portioned onto lettuce leaves or into glassware for an entrée, salad, or dessert. ^{[1] [8]} One method of serving is recounted in a 1937 article in the Ice Cream Trade Journal, which describes the salads as popular at bridge parties, where they were served on lettuce, often topped with mayonnaise alongside crackers and sandwiches. ^[1]

In 1922, frozen fruit salad entered popular awareness in the Philippines after "Frozen Pampanga Fruit Salad" was described in Culinary Arts of the Tropics, a publication assembled by the wives of American colonial officials. From this point, frozen fruit salads appeared in marketing and home economics classes, impressing upon young Filipinos the belief that America was free of scarcity, unlike their home where the cost of freezers, canned fruit, and condensed milk made frozen fruit salads inaccessible. ^[13] In America during the 1950s, fruit cocktail from a can gained popularity in frozen fruit salads. ^[14] Frozen fruit salads continue to be eaten today in the US. ^[8] In the Philippines, the dessert Buko salad is sometimes served frozen, made with canned fruit cocktail, macapuno strings or grated coconut, nata de coco, palm fruit, cream and sweetened condensed milk. ^[15]

• 
  1927 illustration of frozen fruit salad, displayed with its ingredients
• 
  1915 Frozen Fruit Salad, served on a lettuce leaf. The recipe is in the footnotes: ^[b]
• 
  Buko salad as an ice cream bar

See also

• Food portal

• Jello salad
• List of salads

Notes

1. On the association with Southern United States cooking, food historian Richard Foss writes the salad is "a dish that modern diners would connect with the food crazes of the era more than Southern traditions"; ^[11] on the connection to Italian food, food journalist John F. Mariani says the dish and the meal would "at best puzzle and at worst nauseate an Italian hostess", and constitute for Italian-Americans "a sin even to think of eating such things." ^[12]
2. Cut about six slices of canned pineapple in small wedge-shaped pieces; add about the same quantity of canned peaches, pears or quinces with liquid from the fruit to fill a quart mold; spread paper over the mold and press the cover in place. Pack the mold in equal measures of rock salt and crushed ice and let stand about two hours. The mixture should not be frozen too stiff. Serve, cut in slices, on nests of lettuce hearts with a salad dressing. For the dressing use French or mayonnaise dressing made with lemon juice instead of vinegar, or, a "boiled" dressing or mayonnaise dressing (made with lemon juice) to which an equal bulk of whipped cream has been added. ^[16]

References

1. Quinizo 2009, p.  185.
2. Lovegren 1995, p.  10.
3. Lovegren 1995, p.  9.
4. Lovegren 1995, p.  2.
5. Lovegren 1995, p.  6.
6. Quinizo 2009, p.  185, 235.
7. 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–" . Retrieved February 29, 2024.
8. Lovegren 1995, pp.  11–13.
9. Ferris 2014, p.  202.
10. Lovegren 1995, pp.  162–163.
11. Foss 2015, p.  86.
12. Mariani 2011, p.  72.
13. Mabalon 2013, p.  153.
14. Lovegren 1995, p.  189.
15. Hopkins, Tiffany (September 16, 2020). "Freeze Your Fruit Cocktail for a Filipino Dessert That's Better Than Ice Cream". Epicurious . Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved December 30, 2025.
16. The Boston Cooking School Magazine 1915, pp.  454–455.

Sources

• "Frozen Fruit Salad". American Cookery. Vol. XX. The Boston Cooking-School Magazine Company. June 1915.
• Ferris, Marcie Cohen (2014). The Edible South: The Power of Food and the Making of an American Region. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN   978-1-4696-1768-8.
• Foss, Richard (2015). Food in the Air and Space: The Surprising History of Food and Drink in the Skies. London: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN   978-1-4422-2728-6.
• Lovegren, Sylvia (1995). Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads. New York: Macmillan. ISBN   978-0-02-575705-9.
• Mabalon, Dawn Bohulano (2013). "As American as Jackrabbit Adobo: Cooking, Eating, and Becoming Filipina/o American before World War II". In Ku, Robert Ji-Song; Manalansan, Martin F; Mannur, Anita (eds.). Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader. New York & London: New York University Press. ISBN   9781479869251.
• Mariani, John F (2011). How Italian Food Conquered the World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   978-0-230-10439-6.
• Quinizo, Jeri (2009). Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making. Berkley, California and London: University of California Press. ISBN   978- 0- 520- 24861- 8.