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Ambrosia, or Fruit Salad
Six sweet oranges peeled and sliced (seeds and as much of the core as possible taken out), one pine-apple peeled and sliced (the canned is equally good), and one large cocoa-nut grated; alternate the layers of orange and pine-apple with grated cocoa-nut, and sprinkle pulverized sugar over each layer. Or, use six oranges, six lemons, and two cocoa-nuts, or only oranges and cocoa-nuts, prepared as above. Other fruit salads can be similarly made.
A layered fruit dish rather than a tossed salad, and the layering is the point: it should be assembled in a glass bowl and chilled before serving.
- Pulverized sugarThis is what we now call confectioners' or powdered sugar, ground fine so it dissolves on contact with the fruit juice. Granulated will work but takes longer to dissolve; superfine is the closer match if you have it.
- The coconutOne large coconut yields roughly 3 to 4 cups grated, which is a good deal of work with a box grater. Unsweetened frozen or refrigerated grated coconut is the honest substitute; sweetened flaked coconut from the baking aisle is drier and much sweeter, so cut the sugar sharply if you use it.
- OrangesNavels are the practical choice for sweetness and seedlessness. Cut away the white pith along with the peel and slice crosswise into rounds, or supreme the segments free of membrane for a cleaner result than the original method gives.
- The lemon variationSix oranges to six lemons is very tart by current tastes, and presumably depended on a generous hand with the sugar. If you want the brightness, use the juice and zest of one or two lemons over the orange-and-coconut version instead.
- Canned pineappleThe book's aside that canned is equally good tells you canned pineapple was already a respectable commercial product when this was written, and it is better now. Drain it well, or reserve a spoonful of the syrup and count it against the sugar.
- ChillingAssemble at least two hours ahead and refrigerate covered. The sugar draws juice from the oranges and the coconut softens in it; served immediately, the coconut is dry and the layers have not married.
- YieldSix oranges, a pineapple and a coconut make eight to ten servings as a dessert. It does not hold well past a day, as the citrus goes watery and the coconut loses its bite.
Ambrosia is a Southern dessert of the post-Civil War decades, and its arrival in cookbooks tracks the arrival of cheap coconuts and Florida citrus by rail and steamer. The name borrows the food of the Greek gods, a bit of parlor grandeur applied to what is essentially sliced oranges and grated coconut with sugar. Its appearance here among the fruit chapters says something about how a dish gets fixed in a regional repertoire: coconuts came in by ship, oranges were at their best in December, and the combination settled into Christmas dinner in much of the South, where it largely remains. Pineapple, as this version shows, was an optional flourish, and the canned fruit was already respectable enough for a cookbook to say so without apology.