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Jellied Shrimp Salad
2 T granulated gelatine 1 1/2 C cold water 1 pt. boiling water ½ C vinegar 1/2 t salt 1 C condensed tomato soup Mrs. H. L. Titus, Mrs. A. W. Lindroth. ½ C shrimp 1/2 C finely diced celery 1/4 C diced green pepper 1 small onion, minced Soak gelatine in cold water until dissolved. Add the boiling water, vinegar, salt, sugar and tomato soup. Cool until it begins to stiffen and add the shrimps which have been cleaned and cut into halves. Then add the diced celery, green pepper and onion. Pour into wet molds and chill until hardened. Serve on lettuce leaves with mayonnaise. Mrs. H. E. Gaddis.
A congealed salad of the church-supper era, closer to a savory relish mold than to a green salad — which is why it sits in the pickle chapter. Two ingredient listings have clearly gone astray in typesetting, so read the whole thing before you start.
- The green pepper amount is a misprintThe green pepper amount looks like a misprint -- "4 C diced green pepper" against 1½ C shrimp and ½ C celery cannot be right; ¼ C is the likeliest reading. Use ¼ to ½ cup and the mold will balance.
- Sugar appears only in the methodThe directions call for sugar but no quantity is listed. With 1½ cups vinegar in play, 2 to 4 tablespoons suits; taste the liquid before it sets and adjust.
- Gelatine to liquid2 tablespoons of granulated gelatine is roughly 2½ envelopes. The recipe carries about 5 cups of liquid, which gives a soft, spoonable set. For a mold that unmolds cleanly onto lettuce, use 3 envelopes.
- "Soak until dissolved" means softenedGranulated gelatine only swells in cold water; it dissolves when the boiling water goes in. Stir the hot liquid until no grains remain on the spoon.
- Condensed tomato soupUndiluted, straight from the can. A standard modern can is about 10¾ oz, roughly 1¼ cups, so one can covers it.
- The vinegar is assertive1½ cups of cider or white vinegar in 5 cups of liquid makes this frankly sharp — the point of a relish mold served alongside cold meat. If you mean it as a salad course, cut the vinegar to 1 cup and make up the difference with water.
- ShrimpUse cooked, peeled, deveined shrimp; "cleaned" here means shelled and the vein removed. Small or medium sizes halve lengthwise best. Canned shrimp, the likely original, should be rinsed and drained.
- Wet moldsRinse the mold in cold water and do not dry it — the film of water lets the set jelly release. Chill at least 4 hours, or overnight for a large mold.
- YieldAbout 7 cups once the shrimp and vegetables go in, so use a 2-quart mold; serves 8 to 10 as a side.
Gelatine salads like this one belong to the period when packaged granulated gelatine and condensed soup were both cheap, shelf-stable and new enough to feel modern — a combination that church and club cookbooks across the American Midwest reproduced by the hundreds. Its placement under "Pickles-Relishes" rather than "Salads" is telling: with a cup and a half of vinegar, this is a molded relish meant to cut through cold ham or a roast, descended from the aspics and jellied garnishes of nineteenth-century cookery but built from cans and a tin ring mold. The double attribution — two names beside the ingredient list, a third at the end — is a common artifact of community cookbooks, where the same dish arrived from several kitchens and the compiler credited them all.