I have been meaning to update this blog for something like two years (whoops!) but I suppose it’s better late than never!
We traveled to visit family out of state for the Thanksgiving holiday and I figured that being in a completely unfamiliar kitchen in an unfamiliar location with none of the supplies I needed was the perfect time to throw together a jello recipe that nobody really wanted.
To save time, I revisited a past jello salad source, a digitized cookbook called The Courier-Times Book of Famous Recipes, which is a 1952 collection of recipes gathered from staff and readers of The Courier Times of Newcastle, Indiana. The Pineapple Cheese Salad recipe stood out because it sounds a little weird but is also deceptively simple to make and doesn’t require any cooking, whipping, or layering.
It is also a pretty standard 1950s style of sweet jello salad. You’ve got your canned good (pineapple), your dairy (cream cheese), lime or lemon gelatin (in this case both), and an additional add-in (marshmallows). Normally the extra ingredients are a bit more worrisome than marshmallows. This one luckily does not call for pimiento, nuts, or olives.
The Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 oz. box of lemon jello
- 3 oz. box of lime jello
- 2 cups boiling water
- 8 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese
- 8 oz. mini marshmallows
- Can of crushed pineapple (14 oz. or 20 oz.)
Directions
Pour the gelatin into a bowl and pour two cups of boiling water over it. Stir, then add the cream cheese and marshmallows. Stir until the cream cheese is completely melted and/or the marshmallows are mostly or completely melted.
Tip: Let your cream cheese soften at room temperature before making the jello. If it is too cold, the water will cool off before everything is adequately melted. The cheese will melt quicker than the marshmallows.
Once the mixture is cool (but not set), stir in the can of crushed pineapple. Pour it all into a mold and let it set overnight in the refrigerator. The jello mixture completely filled my 4-cup mold with enough left over to fill a small bowl, so I would guess that this will fill a 6-cup jello mold.
Notes about midcentury weights and measurements:
The original recipe calls for “large” Philadelphia cream cheese, which I believe is referring to the standard 8 oz package. My research indicates that 8 oz was a common size in 1952 just as it is now, but 4 oz packages were available as a kitchen standard. There may have been larger ones sold at certain grocery stores, Philadelphia brand did sell 16 oz packages in bulk, but I thought this recipe turned out perfectly with the standard size.
In the 1950s, cans of crushed pineapple came in 8 oz, 16 oz, and 20 oz. This recipe calls for medium, which would have likely been the 16 oz can. Standard “medium” cans of crushed pineapple now come in 14 oz or 20 oz, so I figure you can use either one for this recipe unless you want to measure out the exact 16. I didn’t have a scale so I opted for the 20 oz can because the difference is very small and jello is actually very forgiving.
The Verdict
This jello was shockingly excellent. I didn’t expect it to be bad, but the bar is pretty low for some of these jello salad recipes. I genuinely enjoyed this one. The flavor is great and the texture is creamy enough to be pleasant, but also has a slightly dense layer where the cream cheese and marshmallows separate from the rest of the jello during the setting process. I would absolutely make this again. 5 stars…er, molds.
Molded Memories 