What comes to mind when you hear the word ambrosia?

[Phentex]

My husband made a carrot and raisin salad last night and it reminded me of something similar my mother made that she called ambrosia. Hers used mayo, lemon juice, carrots, celery, raisins and apples. My southern aunts made something they called ambrosia that was white and watery with oranges slices, pineapple, coconut, nuts and marshmallows. Seems like that's the more common kind of ambrosia. Why the hell did my mother call hers ambrosia? She was Sicilian so maybe she got it mixed up some how.

[Heartstrings]

1. The Ambrosia Chocolate Company in Milwaukee, WI

where Jeffrey Dahmer worked....

Oh, and a yummy fruit salad with marshmallows, whipped cream and fruit cocktail...

[Phentex]

12. Thanks for being honest!

[Heartstrings]

14. No worries...

[TBA]

2. I'm from the south and Ambriosia

is definitely "white and watery with oranges slices, pineapple, coconut, nuts and marshmallows". Even as a kid I hated the stuff.

[japple]

9. That was because some people didn't drain and sweeten the fresh coconut, so the liquid tasted soapy.

My mother always rinsed it and sweetened it before adding to sectioned oranges, pineapple and some other fruits so her ambrosia wasn't white and watery. She didn't add nuts or marshmallows until years later, and by that time Cool Whip had been invented and of course it went in the mix too. Then, I started to hate it too.

[CincyDem]

3. Holding on to yesterday. Kinda captures the political climate these days, eh ?

[Phentex]

13. very reflective

I haven't heard that in years!

[MrScorpio]

4. Going to Greece to get the real stuff

[Warpy]

5. The only common elements I've ever seen in stuff called "ambrosia"

are some kind of fruit, some kind of mixture, some kind of glop to sit in, and the fact that I always turned it down (gladly) because it had some kind of citrus in it and I could plead allergy and the worst of it had a ton of coconut to get stuck in one's teeth. So I guess my own synonym for "ambrosia" is "no thanks."

I have noticed that the farther south you go, the more citrusy it gets. Up north it can be apples and dried fruit in glop and if it weren't for the glop, I'd probably eat it up north.

The glop can vary from flavored yogurt, which is the least offensive, to Jello whipped into Cool Whip, a combination of mayo and some sort of dairy, and marshmallow fluff (the most offensive). Suburban housewives are always extremely proud of their ambrosias, most of which are from recipes clipped out of adverts in magazines.

[femmocrat]

6. I remember the one with shredded carrots, etc in jello as "Perfection" salad.

I always hated it, so I don't know why it was considered perfection.

"Ambrosia" is the fruity mixture in some kind of white sweet dressing. Its super-sweet with mini marshmallows and coconut.

Ambrosia is a variation on the traditional fruit salad. Most ambrosia recipes contain fresh or sweetened pineapple, mandarin oranges or fresh orange sections, miniature marshmallows, and coconut. Wikipedia

[alfie]

7. None of those describe the ambrosia I grew up with

I never made it, but it was a frequent part of Christmas dinners. It had orange segments, chunks of pineapple and coconut shredded. Nothing white. There may have been some sweetening or maybe some brandy. I enjoyed it.

There is a salad called 5 cup salad that sounds like some of the recipes mentioned above: 1 cup each of mandarin oranges, pineapple chunks, coconut shredded, miniature marshmellows, and sour cream. It is made a day ahead and the marshmellows are pretty much disolved by the time it is served. We add coarsly chopped pecans just 'cause anything good is better with pecans.

[Hortensis]

16. Me either, but I remember enjoying it. Like anything,

a decent cook can produce it well and bad cooks can ruin it. And, let's face it, like art and music food is whatever it is, regardless of how in or out of style it might be.

When I managed the actual serving of a large Girl Scout dinner, already committed to donations of lasagna, I was shocked to find the kind of slop some parents produced. I hated cooking in those days, but no way would that stuff have come out of my kitchen. Ever! We literally had to throw some away, absolutely refused to serve those watery repellent messes.

Or that green bean slop so common at Thanksgiving, a treasured dish. It can be decent when properly made, the happy nostalgia for this 1950s canned soup recipe at least understandable (my mom didn't make it), but what happens when the "cook" chooses gray, off-brand "cream of mushroom soup" and pairs it with an inadequate amount of French-cut green beans swimming in it, topped with possibly rancid off-brand potato whatever they are.

I've never actually made ambrosia specifically, but fruit and whipped cream? I'll enjoy a good ambrosia any time it's properly put together with good ingredients.

[Yonnie3]

8. Here's what I remember as ambrosia.

In this group in a Thanksgiving discussion I said:

... for fruit we always had what my Mom called ambrosia. It did not have whipped cream or marshmallows as I see in the modern recipes. It was a fruit salad, heavy on the citrus, bananas, plus pears or peaches or whatever looked good in the store. If we had some good home canned fruit it might be added. It was topped with sweetened coconut shavings and sprigs of mint if any were left in the garden. I'm not sure, but believe some simple syrup was added.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1157&pid=61740

I'd forgot that often pineapple (usually from a can) was included.

Edit: No glop of any kind.

[TygrBright]

10. A truly horrible salad that used to appear at summer picnics and potlucks. n/t

[Phentex]

11. HA!

I am enjoying these responses. All of them.

[dem in texas]

15. Here my memory of ambrosia, it served with layer cake

It was a mixture of orange slices and coconut and it was served with layer cake. A mixture of fresh sliced fruit goes well with a piece of layer cake. When I make a cake, I will have a bowl of fruit to serve on the cake. Fruits that have juice like oranges or strawberries are good, mixed with what ever is on hand.

I do remember a 1960's salad made with canned Mandarin orange slices, pineapple chunks, coconut and miniature marshmallows, all mixed with sour cream. I think it was called the Five Sisters Salad. I made it a few times, didn't like it, but my daughters did, they always wanted it when we had baked ham. One year, I refused to make it and they went to the store and bought the ingredients and made it. But please, keep the mayo away!