Vintage Recipe: 24-Hour Fruit Salad

On social media people like to share recipes from their ancestors – mothers, grandmothers, others who wrote down tried-and-true favorites.

My mother wrote some of her favorite recipes for us to have, so I’m thrilled to have her beautiful penmanship on recipe cards.

Upon examining a spiral-bound cookbook in the Indiana Room of the Wells County Public Library (my local library), I found another family name: Lorene Oswalt.

She was one of my dad’s sisters who lived in my hometown most of her life (she’s still living at 102 in another state close to family). She worked locally as a nurse before retiring. She was much-beloved for her friendliness and sweet smile.

The cookbook with her recipe was published by the Bluffton Masonic Organization in 1976.

She called her recipe ‘24-Hour Fruit Salad.’

Upon making it this week, I found it to be healthy, quick, and easy dish to prepare. Using pineapple with 100% juice and frozen dark, sweet cherries with no sugar, it was virtually sugar-free and full of fiber. The addition of two eggs in the light sauce made it enriched.

My family finished it in two days and have already requested a second dish. Woohoo!

The recipe does require a little time on the stove as it calls for a light sauce to be made with a double boiler.

If you’ve never used a double boiler or think you don’t have one, don’t worry. You probably have one without realizing it and it can be simple to use.

All you have to do is fit a small pan with a lip around it inside a bigger pan. The pan with the lip should be able to withstand heat.

Put 1” of water in the big pan and heat it on the stove until it simmers (gently boils). Place the pan with the lip inside the bigger pan. Voila! You have a double boiler!

Hint: The water should not touch the bottom of the pan with the lip. I don’t know why but this is very important.

One thing I really like about this recipe (other than that it is delicious!) is its versatility. The recipe calls for white cherries – I couldn’t find them so I used frozen dark ones.

Perfect. It gave my dish a slight pinkish tint.

The next time I make it (it will be soon), I’ll experiment with bananas, apples, maybe coconut and raisins or dates. I think this recipe could be adapted to most fruits.  Yay!

See my notes at the bottom and a ‘Vintage Find of the Week.’

Enjoy!

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24-Hour Fruit Salad

2 c. white cherries (seeded, drained — save juice for a yummy drink with the pineapple juice)

2 c. pineapple, diced, drained

2 c. oranges, diced

2 c. marshmallows, cut up (I used minis)

2 eggs, beaten

4 T. vinegar

4 T. sugar

2 T. butter

1 c. whipping cream

Cook eggs, vinegar & sugar in double boiler until thick.

Remove from heat.

Add butter; cool.

Add egg mix to fruit.

Add marshmallows.

Fold in whipping cream.

Let stand overnight in refrigerator.

8-10 servings

My notes:

* As the sauce inside the double boiler gets hot, it will thicken. Stir often so it doesn’t stick. In 10 minutes it should be ready.

* Combine the drained cherry juice and pineapple juice — together they make a tasty drink!

* The title says it is a ’24-Hour’ salad, but I’m not sure why this is necessary. The recipe can be made in less than 30 minutes. After 4-5 hours, the dish should be chilled enough to serve.

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Vintage Find of the Week

I had never seen this type of pie plate with an attached slide element — I assume it’s to help the cook get it in and out of the oven without getting burned.

So when it showed up on an online auction site, I bid on it and was the happy winner. I’ll do more research to discover its age. Pretty unique, I’d say.

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