The Covered Dish
Debbie Dance Uhrig
While I have been furloughed from the city, (Silver Dollar City) I have done more home repairs than writing new recipes. One thing I like do enjoy doing is re-writing old recipes. This is done by cooks for a variety of reasons.
For our household it’s sugar content, for my husband, and for myself it is the body/form of this salad.
This recipe is very old, I remember my mother making it quite a bit in the 60’s and 70’s. It became one of my favorites, however, I always wanted to update it. For example, while being extremely tasty, the salad didn’t have a tight form. Therefore it tends to sorta’ slide every which way, on the plate. What I have been doing for years is adding a packet of unflavored gelatin along with the 3 oz. package of orange gelatin. This tightened the salad so it wasn’t quite as loosey goosey, but I still wanted a more manageable presentation.
The amount of cottage cheese in this recipe is 16 ounces. Now days I actually drain the cottage cheese before implementing it, into the salad. Then I follow up with the sprinkling of the 2 gelatins over the cottage cheese, stirring it in. There’s also playroom on the fruits. For health reasons go with fruit with no sugar added. I flipped the fruit around a bit to 15 ounces of drained mandarin oranges and 8 ounces of drained tidbit pineapple. These updates are going to bind the salad making it tight on the plate. Another suggestion is to use the salad as a dessert. Choose a beautiful wine or margarita glass and garnish with mint and an orange slice. Yummy and so very refreshing for the summer months.
My mom called last week asking for the original, on this recipe, somehow she had misplaced her copy. I knew exactly which cookbook, of hers, that it was in, but she couldn’t find the book! The other intriguing part is as follows: I had to go to my old ‘card’ recipe files and it was not neat and tidy. I eased my fingertips in and the first card I pulled out was this salad! Gave me goosebumps, perhaps this is why I decided to run with it this week.
If we were to print the original recipe for you, it would be very interesting indeed. There’s not one notation on the amounts, just the words small or large. In the early recipe a novice would not know which end is up. This, friends, is a good tip for all of us. When you set a recipe, remember some folks don’t know the chicken is to be cooked before it goes into a casserole! I would rather be accused of being to ‘wordy’ with a dish, than to leave spots where a novice could fall into the cracks. And, I too do this sometimes, it’s a tendency I have to watch.
What’s up for Father’s Day? Oh I’m spoiling my husband, like I frequently do. Saturday night he’s having a steak dinner with many of his favorites, including this refreshing salad. Sunday we are going out on the lake with friends and concluding with a dinner afterwards. I’m taking coleslaw and my homemade sourdough.
Enjoy my revisions to this nostalgic salad, and have an outstanding week.
Simply yours, The Covered Dish. www.thecovereddish.com
Cottage Cheese Salad, revised 2020
16 ounces, drained small curd cottage cheese
3 ounces of orange jello, sugar free works too*
1 packet of unflavored gelatin, (.25oz.) (Each box, 4 packets totaling 1 oz.)
8 ounces, drained tidbit pineapple**
15 ounces, drained mandarin oranges
8-10 ounces whipped cream
In a colander, drain the cottage cheese for approximately 15-20 minutes.
Pour into serving bowl of choice. Sprinkle orange jello and unflavored gelatin over the cottage cheeses, stirring to blend. Rinse colander and drain fruits.
Tap colander after fruits are no longer draining, add to the cottage cheese, stirring gently to blend. Lastly with a rubber spatula or soft tool, gently fold in the whipped cream. Clean sides of bowl, cover with saran and refrigerate. Allow salad to set for 4-5 hours, if possible, before serving. Garnish with fresh orange section and mint.
*Flavors can change easily to strawberry or lime, good for seasonal twists.
**My original was for an 8 oz. flat of crushed pineapple, and it used less mandarin oranges.
A great salad for beginning cooks, or anyone looking for a quick creamy salad.
