Old-Fashioned Fruit Salads

By Edith Wells

Take a tasty trip back in time with these old-fashioned fruit salad recipes collected from various antique cook books. Inside you'll find classics (Waldorf Salad) and variations on the classics, unique little-known recipes, and some of the stranger fruit-salad recipes no longer found on the modern menu. Scattered throughout discover old-fashioned fruit salad advice, ads, and pictures from cook books dating back to the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds.

(1894) Transparent Orange Dressing - How We Cook in Los Angeles
(1900) English Walnut and Sour Oranges Salad - 20th Century Cook book
(1903) Orange and Walnut Stuffed Cantaloupe - The Rocky Mountain Cook Book
(1907) Banana, Peanut, and Graham Cracker Salad - The Rural Cook Book
(1909) Grapefruit, Grape, and Rum Salad - Just for Two
(1910) Egg and Banana Salad - Sunshine Cook Book
(1910) Interstate Fruit Salad - Brockton Hospital Cook Book
(1911) Raspberry and Currant Salad with Basil and Lemonade Dressing - The Laurel Health Cookery
(1912) Cherry Waldorf Salad - Lowney's Cook Book
(1915) Chestnut and Apple Salad - The Nature Cure Cook Book
(1915) Pineapple Walnut Dressing - Benson Woman's Club Cook Book
(1917) Frunut Salad - Mrs. Norton's Cook Book
(1918) Grapefruit, Orange, and Tomato Salad - Twentieth Century Club War Time Cook Book
(1922) The Twenty-Four Hour Grape and Marshmallow Salad - Hanover Cook Book
(1922) Apricot, Marshmallow, and Pecan Salad - The All-American Cook Book

"Fruit salads are much out of place in the dinner menu unless they figure as the last course, when they are served with crackers, cheese and coffee. This is an unusual custom that is rapidly growing in popularity" -"Win the War" Cook Book (1918)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edith Wells
• Release date: Jan 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005673611

Edith Wells

Edith Wells collects and cooks antique recipes. Visit the website for more old-fashioned recipes. The vlog features old-fashioned dessert recipes made paleo, spiced up antique vegetarian recipes, and old-time bean pot recipes. On the blog, you'll find old-fashioned menus for an old-fashioned dinner night, crazy old-time recipes, and antique recipes recreated. Books include: Old-Fashioned Salads, Old-Fashioned Fruit Salads, Old-Fashioned Dinner Menus, and Old-Fashioned Afternoon Tea.

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A Word About Fruit Salad Dressings

"Epicures have recently decided that fruits as well as vegetables can be served with salad dressings and make their appearance at the dinner table, masked in French or mayonnaise dressing."

20th Century Cook Book (1900)

Old-fashioned fruit salads often use mayonnaise, French dressing, oil, eggs, wine, and even vinegar in their dressings. These dressings have been included with the original recipes. However, you may prefer a simpler, sweeter dressing or a dressing without oil, vinegar, wine, or eggs. Gathered at the end of this cookbook are some of the dressings found in antique cookbooks that could be used as a substitute where mayonnaise, vinegar, etc. is objectionable.

Note: French dressing found in old cook books is not the French dressing in stores today. It is a simple dressing made of oil, vinegar or lemon, salt and pepper and possibly a few seasonings such as onion or cayenne. See the basic recipe below.

Fruit Salad Dressing Sections:

Fruit Juice Dressings

Cream and Whipped Cream Dressings (some with egg)

Boiled Dressings (use egg)

General Suggestions:

Instead of sherry, try grape or lemon juice or a grape juice dressing or lemon dressing.

Instead of mayonnaise or egg dressings, try yogurt or whipped cream.

Instead of thinned mayonnaise, try a cream dressing.

Instead of vinegar or French dressing, try lemon or a dressing made with lemon juice.

1918 French Dressing

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book

Fannie Merritt Farmer

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons vinegar (lemon is suggested for fruit salads)

Mix ingredients and stir until well blended. Some prefer the addition of a few drops onion juice. French dressing is more easily prepared and largely used than any other dressing.

"Fruits mixed with mayonnaise dressing, and served as a salad are unsightly, unpalatable and a little nauseating. One cannot think of anything more out of keeping than white grapes in a thick mayonnaise. The simple so called French dressing is delicate and most worthy of recommendation. Over lettuce, cress or celery it certainly makes a palatable and wholesome dinner salad, and one in which children can be freely indulged. Such fruits as apples, pears, cherries, and pineapples, mixed with celery or lettuce, with French dressing, make an agreeable dinner salad."

Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book (1902)

Old-Fashioned Measurements

1 Coffee Spoon = ½ tsp

1 Dessertspoon = 2½ tsp

1 Gill = ½ cup

1 Saltspoon = ¼ tsp

1 Teacup = approx. ¾ cup

1 Wine Glass = approx. 1½ cups

Apple Salads

"Pare, quarter and core choice, fine flavored apples, one at a time, cut the quarters into not too thin lengthwise slices, place three or four of the slices together and cut across into small wedge-shaped pieces. Never chop apples for salad."

The Laurel Health Cookery (1911)

1895 Apple and Green Onion Salad

APPLE SALAD.

Smiley's Cook Book and Universal Household Guide

Tart apples

Young green onions

Plain salad dressing

Take tart apples and slice them; chop young green onions, mix the two together, cover with a plain salad dressing and serve.

1902 Apple Salad with Sweet Orange and Lemon Dressing

MOCK PINEAPPLE SALAD.

Woman's Favorite Cook Book

Annie R. Gregory

4 apples

2 oranges

Orange juice

Sugar

Juice of lemon

Peel four sound apples of medium size and mild flavor; with an apple corer remove the cores and cut them into thin slices crosswise. Peel two fine oranges and remove the thick outside white pulp, slice them rather thicker than the apple, and, like them, crosswise, removing the seeds. Lay a slice of orange upon a slice of apple. Save the orange juice for the syrup. Place the slices in a circle in a glass dish. Pour the juice you have collected over the fruit. Sift white sugar thickly over it, also the juice of a lemon. To be eaten as a dessert.

1905 Apple Salad with Grapes and Pecans

APPLE SALAD

The North End Club Cook Book

Ladies of the Club

4 large, tart apples

1 lb white grapes

1/4 lb pecans

Mayonnaise

White part of endive

Peel and core 4 large, tart apples, seed and cut in half 1 pound white grapes, 1/4 pound shelled pecans broken in small pieces. Mix with a mayonnaise dressing and dress with the white part of endive.

1911 Cooked Apple Salad with Sweet Cream Dressing

The Laurel Health Cookery

Evora Bucknum Perkins

Apple sauce or baked apples

Sweet cream dressing

Nuts

Whipped sweet or sour cream

French or mayonnaise dressing

Fresh or dried apple sauce or baked whole or quarters of apples (all without sugar), cream dressing sweet, nuts, whipped sweet or sour cream, French or mayonnaise dressing. Serve decorated to taste.

1912 Cinnamon Apple and Nut Salad with Whipped Cream and Jelly

APPLE SALAD

The Cook County Cook Book

The Associated College Women Workers

Recipe by: Mrs. Conklin, Maywood

1 cup chopped apples

1 cup chopped nuts

Cinnamon

Whipped cream and jelly to garnish

Fruit dressing

Mix together 1 cup of apples, chopped fine, and 1 cup chopped nuts, season with a little cinnamon, garnish with whipped cream and bits of jelly, and serve with a fruit dressing.

1912 Apple and Onion Salad with Mustard Dressing

APPLES AND ONION.

The Cook County Cook Book

The Associated College Women Workers

Mrs. May C. May

1 cup vinegar

1 tsp mustard

1 tsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 egg, well-beaten

2 apples

1 onion

Lettuce to serve

Boil 1 cup of vinegar. If strong use half water. Mix 1 teaspoon of mustard, 1 teaspoon of corn starch, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and 1 well-beaten egg. Stir this into the boiling vinegar and cook until creamy. Pour it over 2 mildly acid apples and 1 onion, chopped fine. Serve it with lettuce cups.

1912 Apple and Cream Cheese Salad

NEW SALAD

Christopher House Guild

Mrs. Theodore Nelson Johnson

Apple

Lettuce

Cream cheese

Mayonnaise

Bar-le-duc (Currant preserves)

Peel an apple, core and cut in cross slices. Lay 1 slice on a few lettuce leaves on each plate, and over it put a layer of cream cheese, which has been put through a potato ricer; around this put a circle of mayonnaise dressing and bar-le-duc in center. A prettier dish can hardly be imagined and cream cheese is never so good as when used in this way.

1913 Lemon Apple Salad with Grapefruit and Canned Cherries

OCTOBER SALAD

The Winston Cook Book

Planned for a Family of Four

Helen Cramp

4 red apples

1/2 cup canned cherries

1 grape-fruit

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

4 autumn leaves

Select hard red apples; wash and dry them; cut a slice from the top of each and remove the hearts. After taking the cores from the hearts chop them together with the grape-fruit and cherries; mix with the sugar and lemon juice and return to the apple cases. Place each apple on a brilliant autumn leaf.

1913 Apple and Date Salad

Apple and Date Salad

Fifty-Two Sunday Dinners

Elizabeth O Hiller

3 Jonathan apples (about 2 cups)

Lemon juice

1/2 lb. dates, skins and stones removed

French dressing

1/2 cup almonds

Lettuce heart leaves to serve

Mayonnaise Dressing

Pare and core three Jonathan apples. Cut them Julienne style (in straws); there should be two cups. Sprinkle apples with lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Clean one-half pound of dates, remove skins and stones; let them dry off in the oven. When cold, cut each date in strips, same as apples. Mix apples and dates and marinate them with French dressing. Let stand one hour. Then add one-half cup almonds cut in shreds lengthwise. Mix well and serve in nests of lettuce heart leaves. Mask with Mayonnaise Dressing

1914 Apples Stuffed with Figs, Raisins, Dates, and Nuts

Apple Farci

Lessons in Cooking Through Preparation of Meals

American School of Home Economics

4 apples

4 figs

8 dates

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup nuts

1/2 cup water

2 tbs butter

1/4 cup sugar

Cream (optional)

Wash and core 4 good sized apples, Jonathan preferred. With a vegetable scoop or a teaspoon remove several pieces from the sides of each apple, taking care, however, that the cavity so made does not extend to the core. Put 4 figs, 8 dates, 1/4 c raisins, 1/4 c nut meats, and the pieces of apple through the food chopper, and fill the cavities of the apples, cores and all with this mixture. Place in a small baking pan with 1/2 c water and 2 T butter, sprinkle with 1/4 c sugar, cover and bake slowly until tender. Remove from the pan, adding whatever syrup there