First Attempt at a Jell-O from 1942

  For my next Jell-O adventure I decided to pick one from the 1942 Good Housekeeping cookbook.  Recently when I was at the store I noticed how beautiful the strawberries looked.  So, since it is strawberry season I picked “Strawberry Cheese Dessert Salad.”  This is one of those recipes that can be a little deceiving.  The recipe is very short and seems very simple, but once you get going you realize it takes a few more steps and equipment than what you originally thought.  The recipe calls for two cups of strawberries cut thinly….a bit time consuming.  

Then it wants the heavy cream whipped, which for me requires getting out the electric mixer because you can bet that I won’t whip that by hand like my great grandmother probably did!  

But other than that it’s a straight forward recipe.  

The only other issue I ran into was the cream cheese addition (and yes, I did use cream cheese instead of cottage cheese).  It was a bit hard to mix it into the other ingredients because it was a lot harder texture and created lumps.

   This recipe called for the addition of a lemon cream dressing.  It also recommended serving the salad on a bed of lettuce.  I decided to make the dressing but I decided the lettuce leaf décor was a little too fifties housewife for me! 

    With the start of this blog I decided I needed to give myself a present.  I bought a couple of molds in order to make pretty Jell-O.  Once the first one arrived I made this salad.  Luckily there were no disasters awaiting me during the making of it.  So I poured the completed mixture into my new wave like mold and placed it in the fridge for the night.

   I decided to unmold it and make the dressing at my parents’ house.  I thought it was fitting to try my salad with my mom since it came from her grandmother’s cookbook.  Again the dressing was a little deceiving, whip the cream again, chill the lemon mixture then fold in the whipped cream.

  I also ran into problems unmolding the Jell-O.  It took sliding a knife around the sides and dipping the mold in warm water twice.  So, when it finally did plop out it was pretty runny.  After I chilled it for a while it was still runny.  I wonder if the cream and the cream cheese made the texture thin.  (Again, I have a problem with the texture!!)

  

So I sliced it, added a dollop of the dressing, and served it to my mom and me.  We both thought it was wonderful!!  Adding the cream dressing to the creamy Jell-O was a bit indulgent and not quite necessary, but it tasted fine.  I then took some to my boyfriend and he enjoyed it too!  So this one is quite a success!  My recommendation is to make the lemon dressing but I would just serve that with plain fruit.  I think this “salad” is a great dessert alternative!

I would give Strawberry Cheese Dessert Salad 4 out of 4 stars!!

The recipe follows

Strawberry Cheese Dessert Salad

From The Good Housekeeping Cook Book ©1942

2 C. Hulled, washed Strawberries

6 T. Granulated Sugar

1 Envelope plain, unflavored gelatin (1 T.)

¼ C. Cold Water

¼ C. boiling water

1 T. lemon juice

¼ t. Salt

¾ c. canned crushed pineapple, undrained

6 oz. pkg. cream cheese or 2/3 C. cottage cheese

½ c. heavy cream, whipped

Lettuce

24 hulled, washed whole strawberries

Lemon Cream Dressing (recipe follows)

Cut the 2 c. strawberries into thin crosswise slices and add the sugar.  Soak the gelatin in the cold water 5 min, then add the boiling water and stir until the gelatin is dissolved.  Add lemon juice, salt, pineapple, and sugared berries.  Chill until it begins to thicken, then add cheese and beat with egg beater until well mixed.  Fold in the cream and turn into a 2 qt. mold which has been rinsed in cold water.  Chill until firm, then unmold on lettuce, garnish with whole strawberries and serve with Lemon Cream Dressing.

Lemon Cream Dressing

3 T. Lemon Juice

3 T. granulated sugar

1 egg, well-beaten

1 c. heavy cream, whipped

Combine lemon juice, sugar, and egg in double boiler and cook over hot, not boiling, water until thick.  Chill and combine with the whipped cream.  Serve with fruit salads.  Serves 6-8.