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Mixed Fruit Salad
6 slices pineapple 12 marshmallows lettuce 1/2 cup chopped nuts 1/2 cup mayonnaise Arrange slices of pineapple on a bed of lettuce. Mix together nuts, marshmallows, cut in small pieces and mayonnaise and mound in center of pineapple. Garnish with Maraschino cherries.
A composed salad of the sort that filled the salad course of American holiday menus between the wars. Everything is assembly; the only judgment calls are the pineapple and the dressing.
- Pineapple slicesCanned rings in juice, well drained and blotted dry, are the likeliest reading and still work best. Wet slices thin the mayonnaise into a puddle on the lettuce.
- MarshmallowsMarshmallows of the period were often larger and drier than today's bagged ones. Twelve standard marshmallows quartered with scissors gives roughly the right volume; miniatures can be used straight, about a cup.
- MayonnaiseA half cup for six servings is generous by modern taste. Period fruit-salad dressings sometimes lightened mayonnaise with whipped cream, which softens the vinegar edge against the fruit.
- NutsWalnuts or pecans, chopped and briefly toasted, hold up better against the marshmallow than raw nuts do.
- LettuceIceberg or another firm leaf cup, chilled and dry. Tender leaf lettuces collapse under the weight of the mound.
- Assemble lateMarshmallow begins dissolving into mayonnaise within the hour. Mix the filling shortly before serving and keep the plated salads cold.
- YieldSix plates, one pineapple ring each, as a salad course rather than a side dish.