Perfection Salad

[Chuckie]

Somebody on the "other site" inquired what Perfection Salad was after they found it in the Chambers Idlehour cookbook.  Here's what she posted:  "P.71 of the Idle Hour cookbook. Under "Menus": Oven Dinner with Pie. There it is. Perfection Salad. It's not in the book. I know because my daughter and I looked. Any ideas?"

Well, no recipe THERE, and several members 'over there' offered recipes they found.   Wanting to use my late Mother's Jell-O molds, I told them I'd give 'er a shot.  After THREE trials & TWO 'errors', FINALLY figured it out!!! First was TOO runny, second TOO dry, third one was the Goldilocks Salad---JUST RIGHT!!! Recipe/pics to follow--a little more "in depth" than the 1905 recipe!

ENJOY, you WON'T regret it!!!  As 'nasty' as it may seem/sound, we ARE gonna serve this @ our next dinner party for the salad course, AND take to the June monthly Eagle's B-day party @ Aerie #55, we like it that much!!   I've let TWO friends that ventured by the house yesterday try the not-so-set version, and BOTH clamored for the recipe!! One is having a picnic Sunday, and intends to do a DOUBLE batch in a loaf pan to serve her guests!!!  Monkey is watching her 8 yr. old & 10 yr old nieces for the summer, and they LOVE it!!  Lastly, my 92 y.o. M.I.L. tried it today.  She asked for the recipe and is taking it down to the Senior Center as her salad tomorrow too!!! 

LOL, as they say what goes around comes around, and what's old is new again!!! Or as Yogi Berra would say, deja vu all over again!

CHEERS!
Chuckie
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PERFECTION SALAD

½ cup cold water
1 packet unflavored gelatin (1 TBS +/- is in each individual envelope)
1 cup boiling water
½ cup apple cider vinegar
Juice of one fresh lemon (approx. 2 TBS)
¼ tsp salt (+/- to taste)
¼ cup sugar (can bump to ½ if desired sweeter)
1 TBS dried minced onions
1 – 8.3oz jar Pampa Roasted Red Sweet Pepper, drained (one pepper in each jar)
1 – 4oz jar pimentos, drained
1 cup celery chopped fine (3 to 4 stalks)
1 cup finely chopped cabbage (or sub one cup coleslaw mix)

Pour the gelatin over the ½ cup cold H20. Let stand 5 minutes. Add the boiling water, a.c. vinegar, lemon juice, salt & sugar. Whisk until well mixed. Stir in minced onions. Taste now to adjust salt/sugar to your liking (remind self to think sweet/sour vinegar & onion salad for taste). Place in refrigerator until mixture is consistency of unbeaten egg white (45 minutes +/-).

While mixture thickens, slice roasted pepper longwise & line bottom of Jell-O mold up the sides*.     Can also use bread pan if you don't have a mold. Put mold in icebox w/mixture to chill until mixture is ready. Chop celery, and add to chopped cabbage (or slaw mix) & refrigerate (note crème fraiche 'fermenting' in mason jar).



Kinda 'lace' them together...



When mixture is correct consistency, stir in celery/cabbage mix. CAREFULLY ladle over bell pepper strips into chilled mold so as not to disturb them. Scatter the drained pimentos over the bottom along the edge of the mixture once mold is full. Use back of mixing spoon to gently press pimentos into gelatin mixture to bond. Let set @ least four hours—overnight is best.  (this liquid mixture is PERFECT for the Jell-O mold, hence I KNOW right amount of liquid!!  LOL, first batch 1.5 cups OVER, 2nd batch 'crumbly' and 1.5" LOWER than top lip of mold!  



To remove, dip mold quickly into hot water, cover bottom with a serving dish, and in one fast motion, reverse so that the dish is on the bottom. Give it a firm shake and remove the mold. If it doesn’t unmold, either dip it again in hot water or wrap it in a dishtowel that has been dipped in hot water and quickly wrung out, and then try again.  Notice the 'dark' spots on pepper strips?  They are the 'fire roasted' variety.  I showed the pic below to me boss, and she said it "looks like SQUID!!"  LOL, I told her to TRY it, she would NOT regret it!!!  Awaiting to hear what she thought...

Serve on lettuce or endive leaf w/"dollop of mayonnaise" IF desired (in original recipe).   We used crème fraiche on ours (recipe below), but we BOTH like it fine just "plain".

*can just dice & mix w/celery & cabbage or slaw mix, but DO refrigerate mold

Crème Fraiche

Stir 2-TBS of buttermilk into a cup of cream, put in container w/loose fitting lid. (I put in mason jar w/paper towel over it, then screw on JUST the band part.)  Let set out in a warm (70-ish) place overnight.   When thickened (24 to 72 hours--depends on temp), stir & serve.  Refrigerate in container w/tight lid for up to 10 days (I kept ours MUCH longer than that before!).   We also use on baked potatoes, scones, pancakes, etc., et al....

[nana]

Ok, I was the "other person" and I made the Perfection Salad yesterday. It looked quite lovely. My grandson said,"It looks like a cake!" There was one holdout in the gathered extended family who refused to try it due to a textural issue. (They just couldn't get past the gelatin.) Here are some responses:

3 year old granddaughter: Perfection Salad is not good. But she barely will eat any vegetables, so disregard her opinion.
It IS food.
It's OK.
You can eat it.
It could have been worse.
It's a nice refreshing salad.
I'm actually going to have seconds!
And so on.

Keep in mind everyone was riffing on the Perfection name and the humor they found in giving measured and tepid responses to it.

However the general consensus after they got all that out of their system was that it was a tasty and quite delicious salad, but probably does not need the gelatine aspect to be good. People are just not used to molded salads anymore, I guess.

Personally, I found that I like the presentation of the gelatin version(without it, it's just cabbage salad), but next time, and yes there will be a next time, I would use lemon zest instead of juice, because it was a little too tart and I just couldn't bring myself to put enough sugar in to counteract that, because we still had dessert coming. Or use the lemon juice and cut back on the vinegar. My sister in law also suggested maybe some crushed pineapple(canned, not fresh!!!) which would probably be good, but I see now how that might have led people down the primrose path to adding marshmallows and maraschino cherries, and cool whip....

[Chuckie]

May 30, 2016 8:47:54 GMT -5 nana said:

Ok, I was the "other person" and I made the Perfection Salad yesterday. It looked quite lovely. My grandson said,"It looks like a cake!" There was one holdout in the gathered extended family who refused to try it due to a textural issue. (They just couldn't get past the gelatin.) Here are some responses:

3 year old granddaughter: Perfection Salad is not good. But she barely will eat any vegetables, so disregard her opinion.
It IS food.
It's OK.
You can eat it.
It could have been worse.
It's a nice refreshing salad.
I'm actually going to have seconds!
And so on.

Keep in mind everyone was riffing on the Perfection name and the humor they found in giving measured and tepid responses to it.

However the general consensus after they got all that out of their system was that it was a tasty and quite delicious salad, but probably does not need the gelatine aspect to be good. People are just not used to molded salads anymore, I guess.

Personally, I found that I like the presentation of the gelatin version(without it, it's just cabbage salad), but next time, and yes there will be a next time, I would use lemon zest instead of juice, because it was a little too tart and I just couldn't bring myself to put enough sugar in to counteract that, because we still had dessert coming. Or use the lemon juice and cut back on the vinegar. My sister in law also suggested maybe some crushed pineapple(canned, not fresh!!!) which would probably be good, but I see now how that might have led people down the primrose path to adding marshmallows and maraschino cherries, and cool whip....

I'm glad no one "expired" and that you found it palatable. The recipe I believe mach12 found had a HALF cup sugar in it. We, however, like the sweet/sour "tang" that it has--same when we make that cucumber & onion salad on the mandolin.

I made my Mom's Jell-O salad (orange Jell-O, carrots, walnuts & canned crushed pineapple--to take to a BBQ we're going to this afternoon. Will try to get a pic before it's cut, and post the recipe too...

CHEERS!
Chuckie

[mach12]

I miss all the salads and Jell-O we used to do in molds. Hadn't really thought too much about it until this thread. Now with the kitchen all torn up and everything packed up except a few basic odds and ends we haven't got the foggiest idea of where the molds are. My life story!