The summer season was made for cookout sides like Five Cup Ambrosia Salad made with sour cream, marshmallows, pineapple, coconut, and mandarin oranges.
Summer has arrived and cookout season is in full swing here in New England. Along with the picnic table and grill, no outdoor barbecue would be complete without the cluster of side salads alongside the hamburgers and hot dogs, beckoning with sour cream and mayonnaise-y goodness. For me, the most memorable (and visually jarring) of the bunch was always the bowl of Ambrosia Salad. The sweet, creamsicle-colored concoction of sour cream, mini marshmallows, mandarin oranges, coconut, and pineapple was a tropical fruit salad a giant step beyond the hollowed out watermelon filled with pineapple and cantaloupe. There were marshmallows in this stuff! Be still my sugar-loving heart.
Five simple ingredients and you’re on your way to Ambrosia! Photo Credit: Aimee Seavey
I’m calling it Ambrosia Salad here, but this version of the dish also goes by the name Five Cup Salad (since it uses five cups of each ingredient), and a host of other quirky names depending on where you grew up or how creative your mother was. Mine, for example, called it Sun Salad.
Dig in to the tropical flavors of summer! Photo Credit: Aimee Tucker
Ambrosia recipes started showing up in American cookbooks towards the end of the 1800s, when coconut was a hot new available ingredient. They typically called for fruits like oranges and pineapple chunks to be layered with coconut and sugar in a bowl, sometimes with the addition of bananas, grapes, and nuts. As the decades passed and marshmallows came on the scene, the sugar was scrapped and marshmallows were brought in, along with sour cream to bind everything together.
Cold, creamy, sweetness in every bite! Photo Credit: Aimee Seavey
It might look a little strange, but on a hot day a spoonful of something cold, sweet, and creamy that takes just minutes to prepare is an easy win.
And did I mention the marshmallows?
Aimee Tucker is Yankee’s senior digital editor. A lifelong New Englander and Yankee contributor since 2010, Aimee has written columns devoted to history, foliage, retro food, and architecture, and regularly shares her experiences in New England travel, home, and gardening. Her most memorable Yankee experiences to date include meeting Stephen King, singing along to a James Taylor Fourth of July concert at Tanglewood, and taking to the skies in the Hood blimp for an open-air tour of the Massachusetts coastline.
I grew up with ambrosia salad as well…but my grandmother always made it with whipped cream rather than sour cream. It was a shock to us kids when we’d see an ambrosia salad at a cookout, heap a big pile of it onto our plate, then dig in to find it was made with sour cream!
This was always a favorite of mine growing up when my grandmother made it unfailingly every Thanksgiving, especially in the 50’s and 60’s. It was a relative’s recipe called “24-Hour Salad”, because it was made with a custard and set overnight in the refrigerator. I sadly lost the recipe, and cannot remember how to make the custard in a double-boiler.) Pineapple chunks, navel oranges, Queen Anne cherries (had to take all those pits out!), and marshmallows were the key ingredients (can’t remember if she added coconut). – I just loved it, and always make it today…lately using yogurt (key lime or any other wonderful flavor will do) to bind it together – and usually add the coconut, sometimes along with apples, bananas, or nuts. I now use mandarin oranges for convenience and looks (though I think naval are better!)…and grapes, because Queen Anne cherries are too expensive. Try this dish…you’ll be delighted.
So yummy. My mother always made ambrosia in the summer and the custard type in muffin tins at Christmas with minced Christmas fruit and nuts. Really nice side with a roast beef and potato dinner.
Maybe someone can help solve my mystery. My grandmother used to make something that sounds very much like the recipe for this dish made with custard as mentioned by Margaret on May 31st. Anyway, like the others, I used to love it. I could have sworn she may have added a little gelatin and it was all spooned into a baking dish lined with a gingersnap cookie crust. It had all the aforementioned fruit and maraschino cherries and it was just delicious and I’ve been looking for the recipe for years. Does this concoction with the gingersnap cookie crust sound familiar to anyone? Also, it was semi-firm, not loose or falling apart, if I remember. I would love to taste it again.
I grew up with ambrosia salad as well…but my grandmother always made it with whipped cream rather than sour cream. It was a shock to us kids when we’d see an ambrosia salad at a cookout, heap a big pile of it onto our plate, then dig in to find it was made with sour cream!
This was always a favorite of mine growing up when my grandmother made it unfailingly every Thanksgiving, especially in the 50’s and 60’s. It was a relative’s recipe called “24-Hour Salad”, because it was made with a custard and set overnight in the refrigerator. I sadly lost the recipe, and cannot remember how to make the custard in a double-boiler.) Pineapple chunks, navel oranges, Queen Anne cherries (had to take all those pits out!), and marshmallows were the key ingredients (can’t remember if she added coconut). – I just loved it, and always make it today…lately using yogurt (key lime or any other wonderful flavor will do) to bind it together – and usually add the coconut, sometimes along with apples, bananas, or nuts. I now use mandarin oranges for convenience and looks (though I think naval are better!)…and grapes, because Queen Anne cherries are too expensive. Try this dish…you’ll be delighted.
Ann , google 24 hour salad made with custard you will find the recipe at “The Spruce Eats website”
So yummy. My mother always made ambrosia in the summer and the custard type in muffin tins at Christmas with minced Christmas fruit and nuts. Really nice side with a roast beef and potato dinner.
Maybe someone can help solve my mystery. My grandmother used to make something that sounds very much like the recipe for this dish made with custard as mentioned by Margaret on May 31st. Anyway, like the others, I used to love it. I could have sworn she may have added a little gelatin and it was all spooned into a baking dish lined with a gingersnap cookie crust. It had all the aforementioned fruit and maraschino cherries and it was just delicious and I’ve been looking for the recipe for years. Does this concoction with the gingersnap cookie crust sound familiar to anyone? Also, it was semi-firm, not loose or falling apart, if I remember. I would love to taste it again.