S/O Congealed salad

[Michelle]

The thread below about Thanksgiving with Black Families included a hilarious comparison of white family Thanksgiving meals vs. Black.

I noticed on the short list for whites was, "congealed salad."

My MIL makes a congealed salad and while it tastes good, the name makes me want to hurl. Congealed. As in what blood and mucus do before they dry up. I don't want to eat anything related to that. I have never heard "jello-with-fruit-topped-with-whipped-cream-and-maybe-nuts" called a congealed salad before.

[One Girl In All The World]

I actually think long ago someone in my family made such a concoction, but they called it something else. I forget what. How on earth does that constitute a salad?

[penguingrrl]

I've never even heard of a congealed salad. I've vaguely heard of jello salads, but never seen one IRL.

[Michelle]

Think Jello Mold. But my mother in law makes one with peach jello, some mixed fruit in it, and it is topped with some cream cheese cool whip spread and pecans.

It is more like dessert that gets served with the main meal.

It tastes good, but I am with whoever above said, "how does that make it a salad?"

But we in the south like to make everything bad for you. We put bacon and butter in our green beans. And it makes 'em gooooooood! (I made green beans with almonds sprinkled in one year but not slathered in butter and no meat and I got some serious WTF expressions).

[saz]

I grew up blissfully ignorant of congealed salads (a child of parents from Alabama and New Jersey) but I married into a family from Nebraska so..... I am now familiar. I still can't help but make fun of them every year. Thankfully no one uses the word congealed but they do try to pass them off as "salad."

[Deleted]

I am Midwestern, so I assume I've seen this in my life, but I don't know what it means

We have jello with oranges and/or cranberries. Is that what they mean?

[Deleted]

We do not eat that weird 1950 salad stuff with sour cream or whatever in it though.

[nomad100]

I picked Special Snowflake. MIL offered to bring a molded fruit salad which is code for jello with fruit and whipped cream mixed in and is a congealed salad. I graciously turned her down and asked her to bring rolls instead.

Turns out she called DH to lobby for bringing the molded fruit salad, even talking about it wasn't just jello but also fruit and whipped topping. The woman is crazy.

She brought one of these unexpectedly last year and she was the only one who ate any of it.

[ttt]

It's not exactly congealed but it's close and my mom insists on making it it of tradition even though no one ever asks for it.

[nomad100]

Nov 25, 2015 17:18:54 GMT -5 saz said:

I grew up blissfully ignorant of congealed salads (a child of parents from Alabama and New Jersey) but I married into a family from Nebraska so..... I am now familiar. I still can't help but make fun of them every year. Thankfully no one uses the word congealed but they do try to pass them off as "salad."

I don't get how this is a salad.  We asked MIL to bring a salad to Easter last year, thinking she would bring a salad with, well, lettuce and other veggies.  Nope,  opaque jello with pineapple chunks.  Blargh!

[sparrowsong]

I wasn't sure what it was either. I guessed jello, and no, we've never had any kind of jello at thanksgiving.

[WOT?*]

It's not technically a congealed salad I don't think because we don't mold it, but a pistachio jello concoction with pineapple and nuts and marshmallow and whipped cream and crap (not technically crap but...crap.) MIL introduced it to our house.

ETA: Maybe it is congealed since it looks like the green one with the nuts thing in the right column below.

[nessness]

Growing up we always had "Christmas salad," a jello concoction that included both marshmallows and horseradish. It was awful. But no one's made it for several years.

[darnkatz]

My MIL grew up in Michigan and always makes what she calls blueberry salad. It's blueberries mixed with pecans and crushed pineapple in raspberry jell-o. The topping is sour cream mixed with cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract with pecans sprinkled on top. I don't know why it is called a salad. It's pretty tasty, though.

I grew up in Wisconsin, and there were definitely jell-o molds present at all family events. Nothing like that, though.

[saz]

Nov 25, 2015 17:22:52 GMT -5 nomad100 said:

Nov 25, 2015 17:18:54 GMT -5 saz said:

I grew up blissfully ignorant of congealed salads (a child of parents from Alabama and New Jersey) but I married into a family from Nebraska so..... I am now familiar. I still can't help but make fun of them every year. Thankfully no one uses the word congealed but they do try to pass them off as "salad."

I don't get how this is a salad.  We asked MIL to bring a salad to Easter last year, thinking she would bring a salad with, well, lettuce and other veggies.  Nope,  opaque jello with pineapple chunks.  Blargh!

Yeah, with my in laws, you have to specify that you want a "green salad" vs a "salad" 

[One Girl In All The World]

I can't stop thinking of this:

[sushi]

I'm glad there's an explanation. No way.

Grands used to love to make Waldorf salad d on holidays, though

[spunkarella]

I'm white and no one brings that to Thanksgiving. The bottom left picture shows up at family reunions and church potlucks sometimes. We call it strawberry pretzel salad and I don't eat it.

[libbride]

We have Jell-o with apples and grapes, which is I guess a congealed salad, but not as bad as many others I have heard of.

[omgzombies]

Nov 25, 2015 17:31:04 GMT -5 One Girl In All The World said:

I can't stop thinking of this:

This is what I keep thinking of as well.  

[Deleted]

Oh, is Waldorf salad a congealed salad? Because we have that.

[kadams767]

Nov 25, 2015 17:35:34 GMT -5 spunkarella said:

I'm white and no one brings that to Thanksgiving. The bottom left picture shows up at family reunions and church potlucks sometimes. We call it strawberry pretzel salad and I don't eat it.

Someone brought this to work once and I'm embarrassed at how delicious I thought it was. I would kind of love it if it somehow made an appearance at my Thanksgiving tomorrow.

[Aquatica]

Never had it, from the west coast. My family makes a fruit salad where it's assorted fruit, cool whip, marshmellows, cherries and nuts. Managed to get my Mom to move away from cans of fruit cocktail and use fresh fruit.

[meshaliuknits]

Jello =/= salad

[spunkarella]

Nov 25, 2015 17:46:45 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

Nov 25, 2015 17:35:34 GMT -5 spunkarella said:

I'm white and no one brings that to Thanksgiving. The bottom left picture shows up at family reunions and church potlucks sometimes. We call it strawberry pretzel salad and I don't eat it.

Someone brought this to work once and I'm embarrassed at how delicious I thought it was. I would kind of love it if it somehow made an appearance at my Thanksgiving tomorrow.

I have never actually tried it. I think I'm ok with that. 

[elleblue]

Nov 25, 2015 17:53:57 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

Jello =/= salad

Right. When I was really young, my mother would make like jello with suspended pear halves in it, but we never called it salad. 

[sushi]

Nov 25, 2015 17:45:47 GMT -5 @jezebel said:

Oh, is Waldorf salad a congealed salad? Because we have that.

.No. It's just another non salad mess of yuck that people Cao salad. I guess because there,s celery?

[meshaliuknits]

Nov 25, 2015 17:57:46 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Nov 25, 2015 17:53:57 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

Jello =/= salad

Right. When I was really young, my mother would make like jello with suspended pear halves in it, but we never called it salad. 

My MIL frequently passes those things off as salad. And then I pass on them.

[elleblue]

Nov 25, 2015 18:19:24 GMT -5 meshaliuknits said:

Nov 25, 2015 17:57:46 GMT -5 elleblue said:

Right. When I was really young, my mother would make like jello with suspended pear halves in it, but we never called it salad. 

My MIL frequently passes those things off as salad. And then I pass on them.

Yeah no, that stuff is jello with fruit. Not salad. 

[karinothing]

As a kid yes, I loved it mmmm