Better Home And Gardens Salad Recipes

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· 8 ratings · 2 reviews

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Mar 06, 2011 Heather D-G rated it it was amazing

The most incredible collection of mid-century molded salad recipes I've ever seen in one place. This goes way beyond the ubiquitous Perfection Salad. A truly jaw-dropping assortment of vegetable, fruit, & dressing-based salads. I won't lie and say that I rushed out to make these in my own kitchen; at least half of them looked completely inedible. If you want a salad book with truly scrumptious salads and fresh ideas, well, you're looking in the wrong place. But if you appreciate vintage recipes The most incredible collection of mid-century molded salad recipes I've ever seen in one place. This goes way beyond the ubiquitous Perfection Salad. A truly jaw-dropping assortment of vegetable, fruit, & dressing-based salads. I won't lie and say that I rushed out to make these in my own kitchen; at least half of them looked completely inedible. If you want a salad book with truly scrumptious salads and fresh ideas, well, you're looking in the wrong place. But if you appreciate vintage recipes from the era when Jello was king and kale was only for garnishes, then this book is a lot of fun.

Mine is the 10th printing (1968) of this book, which has an original copyright date of 1958. Excellent vintage, washed-out photography (appealing in its own way, if you KWIM). Found at library sales and thrift stores everywhere in the $1-$3 range.

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Jul 23, 2020 Jerry rated it really liked it

I specifically picked up this book at a used bookstore on the way back from a family gathering, because I wanted to start making some of the old salads I remember from family gatherings in the seventies and eighties. The first recipe I made, however, was a sesame dressing that could go on any modern salad. It is meant for fruit salads, but it would work with any salad that contains dried cranberries, nuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. It's a combination of sesame, Worcestershire, mustard, paprika, an I specifically picked up this book at a used bookstore on the way back from a family gathering, because I wanted to start making some of the old salads I remember from family gatherings in the seventies and eighties. The first recipe I made, however, was a sesame dressing that could go on any modern salad. It is meant for fruit salads, but it would work with any salad that contains dried cranberries, nuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. It's a combination of sesame, Worcestershire, mustard, paprika, and hot sauce and is phenomenal. It's the best of the recipes I've tried so far. I usually just add olive oil and lemon juice to vegetable salads, and lemon juice and Greek yogurt to fruit salads, but I'll probably be using this at least as often now.

The second recipe was a very traditional "jellied ambrosia". While many of the recipes in this book call for various flavored gelatins, which I'm unlikely to start keeping on hand, this recipe called for standard unflavored gelatin with orange juice added (and since I had a big bag of oranges that happened to be on sale, I used fresh-squeezed orange juice). This is exactly the kind of recipe I bought the book for: orange-flavored gelatin with orange pieces, banana slices, and coconut suspended in the gelatin. While it's meant to be molded, I just poured it into dessert cups and let it solidify. This was also very good. I'll likely be making it regularly in the summer.

The third recipe I made was "date-pecan molds". This looked a lot better than it was; it combines orange juice, crushed pineapple, chopped dates, chopped pecans, and chopped maraschino cherries into a frozen dessert. It's possible that I did not whip the cream cheese enough before folding whipped cream into the mix. It was good, but not great.

I also have bookmarked an orange-pineapple ring (cream cheese and gelatin), an apple snow salad (beaten eggs and whipped cream), a rhubarb freeze (cream cheese and whipped cream), and Polynesian coleslaw (cabbage, lettuce, and mayonnaise), as well as a celery seed dressing and homemade mayonnaise.

If you're looking for old-school salads, this is a great book for it. There is very short, very simple instructions for unmolding gelatin salads, though not frozen salads. This also includes definitions of some of the terms used for making gelatin salads, such as "partially set". I haven't tried unmolding either type: so far they've all worked great using dessert cups to make individual servings.

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Better Homes and Gardens is the fourth best selling magazine in the United States. Better Homes and Gardens focuses on interests regarding homes, cooking, gardening, crafts, healthy living, decorating, and entertaining. The magazine is published 12 times per year by the Meredith Corporation. It was founded in 1922 by Edwin Meredith, who had previously been the United States Secretary of Agricultur Better Homes and Gardens is the fourth best selling magazine in the United States. Better Homes and Gardens focuses on interests regarding homes, cooking, gardening, crafts, healthy living, decorating, and entertaining. The magazine is published 12 times per year by the Meredith Corporation. It was founded in 1922 by Edwin Meredith, who had previously been the United States Secretary of Agriculture under Woodrow Wilson.

Better Homes and Gardens is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.

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