Somewhere, in a not-too-distant neighborhood, the dull hum of a lawnmower is barely audible over the cries of children as they celebrate their newfound freedom from yet another school year. A group text has been sent out, and an invitation for the first potluck of the season has become the harbinger of summer. The main dish has been covered, and someone else has the beverages, so what else is there to bring?
Enter the Midwest salad.
The definition of a Midwest salad is pretty broad and comprises several types of dishes. One thing is for certain, though – few of these salads contain any actual lettuce or other leafy greens. As long as the ingredients are chopped, combined, and held together with some kind of dressing, you can go ahead and call it a salad.
These salads are pretty much guaranteed to show up at a potluck or church fellowship meal, but where exactly did these dishes come from?
Midwest cuisine is the result of generations of family recipes from different corners of the world that have been swapped, shared, and prepared by home chefs that bring their own unique touches to a dish. Many South Dakotan dishes have strong German, Scandinavian, and Lakota influences.
When European immigrants came to America, their dishes followed them. Potato salad, for example, is derived from German dishes like kartoffelsalat. The traditional Norwegian dish rømmegrøt, a sweet porridge, is believed to have influenced sweeter Midwest salads. As the years went on, though, these recipes evolved from homages to classic dishes and became their own unique cultural staple.
Ring-Around-the-Tuna Salad
The Infamous Jell-O Salad
Humans have been eating gelatin since around the tenth century. Gelatin was often used for things like aspic dishes – savory gelatin made with meat stock or broth that often contain pieces of meat or vegetables. Since the ingredients inside were suspended by gelatin, aspic dishes were commonly used as decoration. Sweeter fruit and wine jellies were also popular desserts, and special gelatin molds gained popularity during the Victorian era. Some of these molds were so complex that they served more as a table centerpiece rather than food to be consumed.
Making gelatin was a long, arduous process, and so these dishes were associated with royalty and other wealthy individuals. Even store-bought gelatin took time to prepare. But in 1894, the Knox Company made the first commercial granulated gelatin, and Pearle Bixby Wait patented “Jell-O” a few years after that.
It didn’t take long for Jell-O to become a household name. Modern amenities in kitchens, including refrigerators, gradually became more accessible during the early twentieth century, and clever marketing campaigns brought more attention to the brand.
The first recipes for Jell-O salads started to appear in cookbooks during the early 1900s, and the dishes have gone through several iterations over the years. According to Kris Manty, one of the first recipes for a Jell-O salad was Perfection Salad, created by Mrs. John E. Cook in 1904. Her recipe won third prize in a Better Homes and Gardens recipe contest and popularized the concept of Jell-O salad in the United States. The folks at Jell-O even started to distribute salad recipes themselves.
In the early 1930s, many considered congealed salads as a trendy new dish. After all, refrigerators were still too expensive for the average household. Once the Great Depression hit, Jell-O salads were used as substitutes for more expensive dishes. Savory salads became more popular, and Jell-O added new flavors to accommodate new recipes. The original flavor lineup included orange, lemon, strawberry, and raspberry. Lime flavored gelatin was popular in savory salads, and Jell-O eventually released other savory flavors including celery, Italian, and seasoned tomato. Thankfully, they came to their senses and pulled them from shelves long ago.
By the 1950s, Jell-O salads were at the height of their popularity.
According to Aimee Levitt’s article “In ‘Joys of Jell-O,’ There’s Nothing You Can’t Do With Colored Gelatin”, Jell-O salads were “seen as a marker of sophistication, elegance and status, indicating that a housewife had time to prepare jello molds and that her family could afford a refrigerator.”
Jell-O salads also symbolized the divide between city dwellers and rural folk. Kathleen Norris, who grew up in South Dakota, explained in her book Dakota: A Spiritual Geography that “one has to think in terms of status. Status and electricity. It wasn’t until the advent of electric refrigeration that Jell-O became a staple of the potluck supper or the women’s club luncheon, and that meant town women could serve Jell-O long before country women. Jell-O remained elusive for the most remote rural women until well into the 1950s.”
By the 1960s, when most rural homes had electricity and refrigerators, Jell-O salads helped young mothers save time when it came to preparing dishes. The instant packets of Jell-O mix only required boiling water, a container, and a fridge.
Sadly, all good (though that may be a stretch) things must come to an end, and Jell-O salads started to fall out of fashion in the late 1970s. Children born during this time had grown up with refrigeration, so Jell-O salads lost their novelty. The popularization of French cooking made Jell-O salads look inelegant, and fad diets of the 1980s convinced Americans that all sugar was evil. However, Jell-O salads persisted, though they became dishes that were mostly made for special occasions.
Nowadays, stories and photos of savory Jell-O salads pop up from time to time on the internet, often as examples of the monstrosities people in the past were forced to eat. The sweeter dessert salads maintained their popularity, though, especially here in the Midwest. In Vitus Larrieu’s article “The Mystery of the Midwest Jell-O Salad”, food historians theorized that Jell-O salads stayed prevalent in the Midwest for a few reasons. Culinary Historian Catherine Lambrecht used to volunteer at potlucks and said, “We brought in lots of ice so cold food had the ability to stay cold. And the hot food, well, we just kept telling people ‘Either bring it really hot, or maybe just leave it at home for another day.’”
Ken Albala, author of The Great Gelatin Revival: Savory Aspics, Jiggly Shots, and Outrageous Desserts, believes that Jell-O salad remained popular with politically conservative people, as they tend to have an aversion to changing trends.
Much like lettuce, Jell-O is hardly required in salads today, but many beloved Midwest salads can trace their origins back to the days of instant gelatin mix and elaborate Tupperware molds.
Many of these dessert salads are now called cookie salads or candy salads. The exact origins still remain unclear. Other areas of the country have their own “not quite salad” concoctions.
Ambrosia salad, for example, originated in the Southern United States. An article by Deb Kavis theorized that these salads originated in Minnesota and were inspired by dishes like rømmegrøt. Over time, these recipes spread to other areas of the Midwest, partly due to the rise of community cookbooks.
A Record of Our History
Humans have been recording recipes since the advent of the written word. Cookbooks as we recognize them, however, did not start appearing until the creation of the printing press, and commercial cookbooks started to gain popularity in America during the early 1900s.
In the days before readily-available cookbooks, recipes were primarily taught and shared amongst family members. If someone outside of your family liked you enough, they might have written down one or two of their secret recipes to share with you. Once cookbooks caught on, acquiring new recipes wasn’t limited to just who you happened to know. In addition to commercial cookbooks, community cookbooks helped many regional recipes reach wider audiences.
Community cookbooks used to be staples in smaller towns. Rose Heichelbech wrote about these cookbooks in her article “The Lost Tradition of Church Cookbooks”. Churches, hospitals, schools, and other organizations sold these books as a way to raise money. Members of the organization – usually women – would make a call for recipes and then compile them into cookbooks. They were often sold during other fundraisers, such as bake sales, and sometimes local businesses would advertise to help offset printing costs.
One of the oldest examples of these cookbooks is A Poetical Cookbook, first published by Maria J. Moss in 1864. The proceeds from this cookbook went to aid Union soldiers injured in the Civil War. Other communities heard of the success of Moss’ cookbook and started to create their own. Feeding America stated that more than 3,000 charity cookbooks were published between 1864 and 1922.
Several of Aberdeen’s churches have produced their own cookbooks over the years. Bethlehem Lutheran Church has a small collection of their own books. According to Doug Eisenbeisz, these recipes are unique because “Bethlehem Lutheran had mostly Norwegian people founding it instead of German, like most people here.”
One of the oldest books is The Bethlehem Lutheran Ladies’ Aid Society Cook Book. Published in 1926, it contains recipes for breads, cakes, meats, pickles, relishes, and of course, salads.
These cookbooks are sort of a dying art. The Internet has made sharing and discovering recipes easier than ever, but it has also served as a way to preserve community cookbooks. South Dakota State University maintains an online collection of community cookbooks that can be found at openprairie.sdstate.edu/sd_ cookbooks. OId Aberdeen cookbooks can also be purchased on websites like eBay and Etsy.
Order Up
Sometimes, history is neatly documented and preserved for inquisitive members of future generations. Sadly, food history isn’t always something people consider important enough to write down. It’s hard to give a definitive answer as to where the Midwest salad originated, but there’s no doubt that these dishes will be gracing the tables of our potlucks for many years to come…
- Special thanks to John Masterson and kevins7403 on eBay for the cookbook photos, and to Stephanie Staab for suggesting we write about this topic in the first place.
Serving Up Sources:
➼ history.nebraska.gov/when-jell-o-saladwas- a-status-symbol
➼ eater.com/24081080/joys-of-jellocookbook- 1961
➼ seriouseats.com/history-of-jell-o-salad
➼ jellogallery.org/history
➼ 12tomatoes.com/fundraiser-cookbookshistory
➼ d.lib.msu.edu/fa
➼ tastingtable.com/1847335/midwest-candybar- salad-explained
➼ antiquetrader.com/features/how-jellosalads- created-a-culinary-sensation
➼ midstory.org/the-mystery-of-the-midwestjell- o-salad
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