Save Thanksgiving with a (jello) salad
November 19, 2022 3:42 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for a recipe for a specific strawberry jello salad that used to be part of my family tradition but not having any luck! Do you eat a strawberry jello salad with cream cheese balls?
The people who used to make this recipe have passed away and I don't have access to their recipes, but I'd love to be able to make it for my family this year. There were two different strawberry jello salads we used to eat on holidays. One had a pretzel crust and was covered in Cool Whip. I'm fairly certain I found a close enough dup to that recipe: Strawberry Pretzel Salad. (It is delicious!)
The one I am having problems locating was a strawberry jello salad that included cream cheese balls that were embedded in the jello. I think the cream cheese balls were coated with nuts or pretzels, but there was no bottom crust that I remember. I am fairly sure you didn't know if you had gotten a cream cheese ball until you had cut into it, because that was part of the fun! So it may call for a coating of Cool Whip as well.
This is the closest recipe I have found to the cream cheese version: Strawberry Snow Ball Salad. But I don't think it's the same because my aunt would make it in a 9x13 pan. And I think it involved pretzels instead of nuts, but I'm not 100% confident on that. Does anyone have a similar recipe to this for a strawberry salad with embedded cream cheese balls? I do think this is close, just not quite right.
Some additional and possibly helpful notes:
The recipe originally came from my grandma or aunt who were born in the 1930s and 1950s respectively.
They both lived in the St. Louis area all their lives.
I was eating it in the 1980s-1990s.
Chances are that the recipe calls for frozen strawberries, because those were a favorite cooking item of my grandma.
The strawberries were definitely sliced and not whole.
Thanks for any thoughts! :)
The people who used to make this recipe have passed away and I don't have access to their recipes, but I'd love to be able to make it for my family this year. There were two different strawberry jello salads we used to eat on holidays. One had a pretzel crust and was covered in Cool Whip. I'm fairly certain I found a close enough dup to that recipe: Strawberry Pretzel Salad. (It is delicious!)
The one I am having problems locating was a strawberry jello salad that included cream cheese balls that were embedded in the jello. I think the cream cheese balls were coated with nuts or pretzels, but there was no bottom crust that I remember. I am fairly sure you didn't know if you had gotten a cream cheese ball until you had cut into it, because that was part of the fun! So it may call for a coating of Cool Whip as well.
This is the closest recipe I have found to the cream cheese version: Strawberry Snow Ball Salad. But I don't think it's the same because my aunt would make it in a 9x13 pan. And I think it involved pretzels instead of nuts, but I'm not 100% confident on that. Does anyone have a similar recipe to this for a strawberry salad with embedded cream cheese balls? I do think this is close, just not quite right.
Some additional and possibly helpful notes:
The recipe originally came from my grandma or aunt who were born in the 1930s and 1950s respectively.
They both lived in the St. Louis area all their lives.
I was eating it in the 1980s-1990s.
Chances are that the recipe calls for frozen strawberries, because those were a favorite cooking item of my grandma.
The strawberries were definitely sliced and not whole.
Thanks for any thoughts! :)
Google came up with this: Rella's Jello with Cheese Balls.
Honestly, if you can't find the recipe, I would try to reverse engineer it. Start with the closest recipe you can find, and then tweak it with the things that you remember. So, for instance, you could try the recipe I linked, but substitute pretzels for the nuts (and maybe roll the cheese balls in the pretzels, rather than mixing the pretzels with the cream cheese), and put a layer of Cool Whip on top.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:55 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Honestly, if you can't find the recipe, I would try to reverse engineer it. Start with the closest recipe you can find, and then tweak it with the things that you remember. So, for instance, you could try the recipe I linked, but substitute pretzels for the nuts (and maybe roll the cheese balls in the pretzels, rather than mixing the pretzels with the cream cheese), and put a layer of Cool Whip on top.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:55 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
You could ask uncle phaedrus, finder of this sort of lost recipe.
posted by aniola at 9:36 PM on November 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by aniola at 9:36 PM on November 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
If you go to thrift stores or used book stores at all, keep an eye out for The Joys of Jello cookbooks. The Jello company put out many editions, and they were very popular. I found the 1973 version online, but it doesn't seem to have your recipe.
If you really wanted to pull out all the stops, you could write people selling those on ebay to see if their edition has your recipe.
(Also, I wouldn't think your aunt putting it in a 9 x 13 pan would indicate that's not your recipe. I could totally see my mom doing something like that instead of buying a ring mold. Whether she'd substitute pretzels for the nuts would depend on the creativity of your aunt. She might have not had nuts one time, decided to try pretzels, and then thought that was better.)
posted by FencingGal at 7:15 AM on November 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
If you really wanted to pull out all the stops, you could write people selling those on ebay to see if their edition has your recipe.
(Also, I wouldn't think your aunt putting it in a 9 x 13 pan would indicate that's not your recipe. I could totally see my mom doing something like that instead of buying a ring mold. Whether she'd substitute pretzels for the nuts would depend on the creativity of your aunt. She might have not had nuts one time, decided to try pretzels, and then thought that was better.)
posted by FencingGal at 7:15 AM on November 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’m sure the Show Me Your Aspics Facebook group would love to help you with this
posted by genmonster at 7:43 AM on November 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by genmonster at 7:43 AM on November 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
Show Me Your Aspics
I know I'm not answering the question, but I just wanted to say that as I sit here on a cool Canberra morning and watch the wind blow my garage door off its rails this has significantly brightened my day.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 2:19 PM on November 20, 2022 [9 favorites]
I know I'm not answering the question, but I just wanted to say that as I sit here on a cool Canberra morning and watch the wind blow my garage door off its rails this has significantly brightened my day.
posted by some little punk in a rocket at 2:19 PM on November 20, 2022 [9 favorites]
Best answer: You could ask uncle phaedrus, finder of this sort of lost recipe.
posted by aniola at 11:36 PM on November 19
Is the last recipe on this page the right one?
posted by slmorri at 4:28 PM on November 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by aniola at 11:36 PM on November 19
Is the last recipe on this page the right one?
posted by slmorri at 4:28 PM on November 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I actually think @slmorri's find is the correct one!! I sent it to my sister for confirmation and she agrees. So Thanksgiving is (tongue-in-cheek) saved! And if it turns out that that recipe is not the one I want, I have a few more to try as well. Thank you all!
posted by possibilityleft at 8:07 AM on November 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by possibilityleft at 8:07 AM on November 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kittydelsol at 4:55 PM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]