Candle salad is a vintage

fruit salad Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, sometimes served in a liquid, either their juices or a syrup. In different forms, fruit salad can be served as an appetizer or a side salad. When served as an appetizer, a fruit sala ...

that was popular in America from the 1920s through to the 1960s. The salad is typically composed of

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, ...

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

, banana, cherry, and either mayonnaise or, according to some recipes,

cottage cheese Cottage cheese is a curdled milk product with a mild flavor and a creamy, non-homogeneous, soupy texture. It is made from skimmed milk by draining the cheese, as opposed to pressing it to make cheese curd—retaining some of the whey and keep ...

Whipped cream Whipped cream is liquid heavy cream that is whipped by a whisk or mixer until it is light and fluffy and holds its shape, or by the expansion of dissolved gas, forming a firm colloid. It is often sweetened, typically with white sugar, an ...

may also be used. The ingredients are assembled to resemble a lighted candle. The candle salad is assembled by first arranging a few leaves of lettuce on a plate or decorative napkin to form the salad's base. One or more pineapple rings are stacked on top of the lettuce, providing a niche for inserting one whole (or more often half) peeled banana. For garnish, the banana can be topped with choice of cream and a cherry.

The Food Timeline Lynne Olver (1958–2015) was a librarian and food historian, and the sole author of the Food Timeline website. Personal life Olver graduated from the University of Albany (SUNY). She was a librarian at the Morris County Library, New Jersey ...

history website states that "The earliest print reference we find for Candle Salad is dated 1916. It was presented in this socialite menu; no description or recipe was included: The site lists several other references to the salad in cookbooks and newspapers throughout the 1920s. Candle salad was known as an easy way to get children to eat fruit because of its unusual appearance. It was also considered a child-friendly introduction to cooking because of its simple construction. The recipe for candle salad was published in the 1950 edition of ''A Child's First Cook Book'' by Alma S. Lach, one of the first cookbooks written for children. It is also in the 1957 edition of the '' Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls'' with the description, "It's better than a real candle because you can eat it." A version of this salad appeared in the

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...

children's magazine '' ''The Friend'' in 2008, which included a bed of alfalfa sprouts and strawberry yogurt drizzled over the top of the banana to look like dripping candle wax. The Tested Recipes Institute of New York published it as a recipe card in 1958. Carolyn Andrew Lynch published a small booklet called ''The Candle Salad Story'' in 2003 with several reprinted images from cookbooks and articles. It is available on Yumpu.com. She suggests that the recipe was created to help promote the banana industry. Comedian

Amy Sedaris Amy Louise Sedaris (; born March 29, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Most recently, she has appeared in both ''The Mandalorian'' (2019–2020) and '' The Book of Boba Fett'' (2022) as Peli Motto. She played Jerri Blank in the ...

appeared on Bravo TV's '' Watch What Happens: Live'' to prepare candle salad on a segment titled "Craft Time with Amy Sedaris."

Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. She starred in the sitcom ''Ellen'' from 1994 to 1998, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for " The Puppy Episode". Sh ...

joked about this salad on October 10, 2014. As a result, it became popular on the internet for a short time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Candle Salad Fruit salads Fruit dishes

See also

References