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Orange Mint Salad
4 large seedless oranges 1/2 glass mint jelly mayonnaise 12 mint cherries lettuce leaves Peel oranges, cutting down to the pulp. Cut crosswise in thick slices, and remove center of pithy membrane. Spread mint jelly over slice and cover with another slice. Put a spoonful of stiff mayonnaise on top and garnish with two mint cherries. Serve on lettuce. Serves 6.
A 1930s composed salad course: orange rounds sandwiched with mint jelly, capped with mayonnaise. It needs no cooking, only cold fruit, a firm jelly and a stiff dressing.
- "Half a glass" of jellyJelly was commonly sold and stored in tumblers of roughly 6 to 8 oz, so half a glass is about 3 to 4 oz, or something like 6 to 8 tablespoons -- enough to spread over six sandwiched pairs.
- Mint cherriesThese were maraschino cherries dyed green and flavoured with mint, a standard garnish jar of the period. Green candied or plain maraschino cherries are the closest current substitute; a small mint leaf beside a red cherry also reads correctly.
- Cut down to the pulpThe instruction means removing the peel, the white pith and the outer membrane in one pass with a sharp knife, so the exposed flesh is glossy. Any pith left behind will taste bitter against the sweet jelly.
- Slice thicknessThe recipe says only "thick slices"; around 1/2 inch works. Thinner rounds tear when the jelly is spread and collapse under the mayonnaise.
- Stiff mayonnaiseCommercial mayonnaise straight from the jar will slump on the fruit. Chill it well, or fold in a spoonful of whipped cream or softened cream cheese so the spoonful holds its shape.
- Assemble lateOrange slices weep as they sit and the juice thins both jelly and dressing. Cut and chill the fruit ahead, but build the stacks no more than half an hour before serving.
- YieldSix servings means one stack each, so twelve rounds in all from the four oranges. Twelve cherries gives two per plate.
Fruit-and-mayonnaise salads of this kind filled the salad course of American luncheon menus from the 1910s through the 1940s, when the "salad" was understood as a small constructed centrepiece rather than a bowl of leaves. Mint jelly and mint-flavoured cherries were shelf goods aimed at exactly this use, and the dish suits that purpose: something that looked deliberate on the plate, could be assembled without heat, and offered a sweet-tart interval alongside lamb or cold poultry. The seedless oranges named in the ingredient list would most likely have been navels, shipped from California and widely distributed by this period.