I've already covered the love that Salads Cookbook (Favorite Recipes Press, 1969) shows for pineapple and bananas randomly added to recipes that probably don't need them. Here's another surprise: the book is convinced that "Green Goddess" is a type of molded salad. I always thought it was a salad dressing so loaded with herbs that it was green, and Wikipedia seems to back me up on this one. (However, it also suggests that "green goddess salad" is an alternate name for Watergate salad, so...) Salads Cookbook insists that Green Goddess is not just any molded salad made with green gelatin, but a really gross one.
Well, the simplest form is probably the most palatable. The sweet gelatin, crushed pineapple, and dairy fat combo is usually an alluring one...
...but the salad dressing and cucumbers seem like unnecessary additions (ones that are unlikely to improve it!) to try to justify calling this thing a salad.
Other versions are probably trying to be a little more true to classic green goddess, as they add more vegetables and include the anchovies common in the dressing.
I'm not sure all that many people really long for lime-gelatin-mayo-and-anchovy cubes over a salad of artichoke hearts, grapefruit, olives, and onions, all drenched in French (not green goddess!) dressing.
But if you really want to put some effort into an impressively misguided salad, there's always the Green Goddess Seafood Mold. It's got TWO layers!
The lemon layer wastes crab and lobster by embedding them in lemon Jell-O. Then it's topped off by the anchovy-flavored lime Jell-O! And serving this will be extra nerve-wracking because it involves unmolding two layers--so twice the chance for a large mold to fall apart, implode, or split!
Making the classic dressing seems like way less work (and probably for a better payoff if you're not a condiment-hating freak like me), but one of the Favorite Recipes Press's versions could definitely make a memorable contribution to a terrible retro-themed potluck!
More like the goddess turned green (at the thought of eating them) salads. I was also entertained by the fact that the first recipe relies on green food coloring for its name.
ReplyDeleteYes. Not sure why they didn't just go for the lime Jell-O. It's not as if they were all that concerned about flavor compatibilities.
DeleteI know that one main reason Jell-O salads used to be so popular was that they were a way to save leftovers before they went bad, but a lot of Jell-O salads seem more like they're a way to waste ingredients that could have been good.
ReplyDelete