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Surprise Pear Salad (Use halves of canned pears Mix)
Use halves of canned pears. Mix up a package of cream cheese with finely chopped candied fruits and nuts, moisten with mayonnaise and fill into the cavities of the pears, and spread between two halves. Serve a whole pear, thus stuffed, as each salad. A sweetened mayonnaise dressing is best for this salad, which is placed on shredded lettuce or chickory.
A composed fruit salad of the sort that filled the salad course on American tables between the wars. Nothing here is difficult; the details that matter are the size of the cheese package and what "sweetened mayonnaise" meant at the time.
- The cream cheese packageCream cheese of this period was commonly sold in small packages of about 3 ounces, against today's 8-ounce foil brick, so half a modern block is probably nearer the intended quantity; an 8-ounce block should fill something like six to eight pear halves.
- Work the cheese soft firstCold cream cheese will tear rather than mix. Let it come to room temperature and beat it smooth before the candied fruit and nuts go in, or the filling will be lumpy and refuse to hold the two pear halves together.
- Candied fruitsMost likely the mixed candied peel and cherries sold for fruitcake. Chop fine and, if the pieces are hard and sugary, rinse briefly in warm water and dry them, or they stay gritty against the soft cheese.
- Sweetened mayonnaisePeriod fruit-salad dressings of this kind were generally mayonnaise loosened with cream and sweetened with sugar, sometimes with lemon juice. A workable modern equivalent is mayonnaise lightened with whipped cream and sweetened to taste.
- Drain the pears wellCanned pear halves carry a good deal of syrup. Drain them upside down on paper towels for several minutes before filling, or the syrup runs out onto the lettuce and thins the dressing.
- ReassemblyTwo halves pressed together with filling between them make one "whole" pear. Chill the assembled pears at least half an hour so the cheese firms and they can be moved to the plates in one piece.
- ChickoryA period spelling of chicory; in American usage of the time this usually meant curly endive, what is now often sold as frisee. Its slight bitterness sets off the sugar in the pears and the dressing.
- YieldDepending on the size of the can, pear halves will give anywhere from two to four assembled salads. Served as a salad course rather than a dessert, one per person is right.