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Pineapple Ambrosia
1 fresh pineapple 1/2 pound marshmallows 1 cup heavy cream 2 tablespoons sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon-juice Shred the pineapple with a fork. Cut the marshmallows into small pieces, using a pair of scissors. Mix the pineapple and marshmallows and let stand on ice until thoroughly chilled. Just before serving, whip the cream and add the sugar to it. Add lemon-juice to the pineapple mixture and then fold in the whipped cream. Serve immediately in individual glasses or in a large dessert dish.
A 1920s icebox dessert that depends on the marshmallows softening in pineapple juice, so the long chill is the working step rather than a convenience.
- Marshmallow quantityHalf a pound is 8 oz, roughly 32 modern large marshmallows or about 4 cups of miniatures. Miniatures can be used whole and skip the cutting entirely.
- Cutting marshmallowsScissors are still the right tool; dip the blades in cold water or dust them with confectioners' sugar between cuts to stop the cut faces gumming up.
- "Let stand on ice"The icebox, so the refrigerator now. The recipe asks only that the mixture be thoroughly chilled; allow long enough for the marshmallows to soften and take up pineapple juice.
- Shredding the pineapplePeel, quarter and cut out the hard core first, then rake the flesh lengthwise with a fork so it comes away in juicy threads. Chopping gives cubes that stay separate; shredding releases the juice the marshmallows need.
- Use fresh, not cannedCanned pineapple is cooked soft and is often packed in syrup, so the mixture turns sweet and slack. If a substitute is unavoidable, drain crushed pineapple well and cut the added sugar.
- The creamOne cup of heavy cream whips to about two cups. Whip to soft peaks only, and fold in two additions rather than all at once.
- Serve at onceThe instruction is practical rather than polite. Unstabilised whipped cream folded into juicy fruit separates, and the dessert weeps in the glass if it stands.
- YieldThe recipe gives none; roughly six small glasses, fewer if served generously.
Ambrosia in nineteenth-century American cookery meant sliced oranges layered with sugar and grated coconut, a Southern holiday dish whose name borrowed the food of the Greek gods. By the 1920s the term was being applied more loosely to chilled fruit-and-cream mixtures, and commercial marshmallows -- cheap, uniform and sold by the pound -- appear in a number of them. The New Delineator Recipes came out of The Delineator, the Butterick pattern company's magazine, and reflect a test-kitchen enthusiasm for desserts built from packaged goods and an icebox rather than a stove.