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Date and Apple Salad
1 package Dromedary Dates 1½ cups celery 2 large apples ¾ cup walnuts Peel apples and cut into small dice. Pit dates and cut small. Mix together with diced celery and nuts (broken but not chopped). Serve cold with mayonnaise or cream dressing.
A no-cook Waldorf variant built around a package of pitted-or-not dates, celery and apple. The only real work is keeping the apple from browning and choosing a dressing that suits the sweetness.
- The package of datesDromedary sold dates in cartons, but the weight intended here is not stated on the page; a modern 8 oz box of pitted deglet noor dates is a practical amount for a bowl of this size. Weigh rather than count, since medjool dates run considerably larger.
- Celery quantityThe celery measure is printed ambiguously in the original. A cup and a half of diced celery, about three medium ribs, balances two apples and a cup of dates without the salad turning into a celery dish.
- Walnut quantityThe walnut figure is likewise unclear as printed; three-quarters of a cup of broken walnut halves is the amount that suits the other proportions. Break them by hand as directed, since chopped nuts disappear into the dressing.
- ApplesPeeling is optional now; a firm tart variety such as Granny Smith or Braeburn holds its dice and offsets the dates. Toss the cut apple with lemon juice immediately or it will brown before the salad reaches the table.
- Cutting the datesSticky dates clump under the knife. Oil the blade lightly or chill the dates first, and toss the pieces with the celery before adding anything wet so they stay separate.
- Cream dressingA period reading would be a boiled or cooked dressing thinned with cream, or whipped cream folded into a little mayonnaise. A modern equivalent is equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream with a squeeze of lemon.
- Yield and timingServes four to six as a side. Dress it within an hour of serving; the celery weeps and the apple softens if it stands longer.
The Dromedary brand sold packaged dates, and the recipe's naming of it points to a promotional source. The salad itself is a plain descendant of the Waldorf — apple, celery and mayonnaise, generally traced to the Waldorf Hotel in New York in the 1890s, with nuts a later addition — with dates standing in for the grapes or raisins that other versions used. Sweet fruit in a mayonnaise-dressed salad reads oddly now, but it was common through the first half of the century, when salads were often served as a light course or a luncheon dish rather than a green side.