Fruit salads have been
making the rounds of recipe books, and personal recipe cards, since about 1910
thanks to the canning industry.
Depending on the author, some of these recipes began to pick up their
names by location, such as “Golden Gate Salad” and “Watergate Salad”. In 1922, Helen Keller published a recipe
called “Golden Gate Salad”, consisting of canned diced pineapple, nuts, marshmallows,
whipped cream, other fruits and celery.
The reason for the name simply being that the first time she tried such
a salad was in California, probably the San Francisco area. Helen’s recipe also appeared in a 1925
cookbook, “Favorite Recipes of Famous Women” (Florence Stratton, author) with a
notation of, “It is best made with fresh fruits, but it can be made of canned
fruit. At home we often serve it instead
of dessert, with a little more whipped cream.”
“Watergate Salad”,
however, has rather an obscure pedigree; with a humble beginning of Ambrosia
and the addition of chopped pistachio nuts; creating Pistachio Salad. In 1975, Kraft Foods offered consumers a new
flavor in the Jell-O pudding line, pistachio; a recipe for Pistachio Pineapple
Delight appeared on the box. This
dessert salad picked up names, along its United States journey, such as
Pistachio Delight, Shut the Gate Salad, Green Goop, Green Fluff or Green Stuff. It was not until The Denver Post, in the
Empire Magazine of June 27, 1976, published a recipe for Watergate Salad;
stating that the recipe was developed by a sous chef at the Watergate Hotel in
Washington, D.C. When scandal hit the
White House, and President Richard Nixon, the recipe took off like
wildfire. At the same time, a Watergate
Cake was developed with “cover-up icing and full of nuts”; along with other satirically
named recipes such as Nixon's Perfectly Clear Consommé and Liddy's Clam-Up
Chowder. Kraft even changed the name on
the pistachio pudding box to Watergate Salad to keep up with the presidential
scandal.
Perusing through my Utah
based cookbooks, lime Jell-O made many an appearance in recipes; pudding, not
so much. Even the use of pistachios was
kept to the more garden type salads, or as a main ingredient for salad
dressing. Various bloggers, from Utah,
mentioned family reunions in which Pistachio Salad was present; the recipes being
variations of the original Jell-O pudding recipe. Does that mean Utahns aren’t cracked up about
pistachios? Au-contraire! Located in Hurricane, Utah, Red Rock Ranch
Pistachio Orchards (http://rpistachios.com/) has been producing a unique variety of pistachios
for over ten years. The dry climate of
the desert gives the nuts sweeter flavor and greener coloring; while high in
fat, they are low in carbohydrates.
Here is the original
recipe for Pistachio Pineapple Delight (1975), later renamed as Watergate Salad
(1976).
Ingredients:
1 can (20 oz.) crushed
pineapple in juice, undrained
1 package (3.4 oz.) Jell-O
Pistachio Flavor Instant Pudding
1 and ½ cups thawed Cool
Whip Whipped Topping
1 cup Jet-Puffed miniature
marshmallows
½ cup Planters chopped
pecans
Preparation:
Combine Ingredients. Refrigerate 1 hour.
Makes 8 – about ½ cups
servings each.
Mary Cokenour
