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Thirty Minute Salad
1 pkg. lemon jello 2 T gelatine 1 pt. boiling water 1 can crushed pineapple 2 pkgs. cream cheese ½ C pecan nut meats 1 C heavy cream 3 pimentoes Mix jello with gelatine; add 1 pt. boiling water and stir until dissolved. Let stand for thirty minutes. Stir into this mixture one can pineapple, which has been well drained, and let stand thirty minutes. Cut pimentoes into small pieces, add the cream cheese and work until the cheese is creamy. Add the cheese to the glatine mixture, mix thoroughly, and let stand for thirty minutes. Add nut meats, broken into small pieces, and the cream whipped stiff. Fold the mass over and over with a wooden spoon. Turn into a bread pan or mold and set in refrigerator for eight hours or longer. When ready to serve turn from mold, slice and serve with mayonnaise.
Mrs. Forrest Thomson.
A molded salad built in stages, with three thirty-minute rests to let the gelatin thicken enough to suspend the solids. The measurements assume mid-century package sizes, which have all grown.
- Cream cheese packagesThe small cream cheese package of this era was commonly 3 ounces, so two packages likely meant about 6 ounces, though 8-ounce bricks were also sold. Six ounces is the safer reading; a full pound would turn the salad dense and pasty.
- Canned pineappleCanned crushed pineapple came in several sizes then, from small flat tins of roughly 8 or 9 ounces up to the 20-ounce No. 2 can. Given the quantity of gelatin here, the smaller tin is the likelier intent; drain about 8 ounces well and press out the syrup.
- The gelatin loadOne 3-ounce package of lemon gelatin plus 2 tablespoons of unflavored gelatin in a pint of water is deliberately heavy. This is a salad meant to be turned out of a pan and cut in slices, not a soft dessert set. Do not reduce the unflavored gelatin if you want clean slices.
- Water measureA pint is 2 cups. That is the only liquid apart from the whipped cream, so the mixture will be noticeably thick after the first rest.
- The rests are the methodEach thirty-minute stand lets the base thicken to the consistency of raw egg white. Add the pineapple, cheese or nuts too early and everything sinks; too late and the mass will not fold smoothly. Watch the texture rather than the clock.
- Whipping and foldingThe cream must be whipped stiff and folded in when the base is thick but not set, otherwise it separates into a foam layer on top. Folding "over and over" with a wooden spoon is right; do not stir.
- PimentoesThese come from a jar, packed in brine or water. Drain and blot them, or the extra liquid streaks the cheese.
- Pan and unmoldingA "bread pan" here means an ordinary loaf pan, commonly 8x4 or 9x5 inches. Oil it lightly or line it. To unmold, dip the base in warm water for a few seconds and invert onto a chilled platter.
- YieldPerhaps 10 to 12 slices from a loaf pan, enough for a buffet or a luncheon table. Serve cold with mayonnaise, as directed.
The name refers to the three thirty-minute waits in the method, not to the total time, which runs to eight hours or more of chilling. Congealed salads like this one were a fixture of American church and club cookbooks from the 1930s through the 1960s, when packaged flavored gelatin, canned pineapple, cream cheese and jarred pimiento were all inexpensive, shelf-stable and impressive on a long table. Pecans, whipped cream and a mayonnaise dressing mark it as a company recipe, and the attribution to Mrs. Forrest Thomson is typical of the community fundraising cookbook, where a signed recipe carried its contributor's reputation.