November 22, 2019 • 33 mins
This divine fruit salad(/soup?) comes in near-infinite varieties these days, but they all stem back to a simple layering of orange slices, shredded coconut, and sugar. Anney and Lauren explore the semi-gelled history of ambrosia salad.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio
and Stuff Media. I'm Anny Rees and I'm Lauren vocal
Obam and today we're talking about ambrosia, like the fruit
salad kind of thing. Yeah, we'll touch on the mythological one. Yeah, yeah,
it's part of the story. But um, but but ambrosia
has enough alternate definitions as it stands, we don't really
need to get that far into mythology. I love this
(00:31):
so much. I have rarely been so delighted by research
that I wasn't expecting to be delighted by. I wasn't
I thought I had a very clear idea what ambrosia was.
And it turns out no, very few other humans seem
to agree with you, because because because your family eats
this every year, yes, um, we make it for Thanksgiving
(00:54):
and Christmas. And yeah, I've come to learn most other
people when they hear ambro so they do not think
of this. But what it was was my dad. It
was his recipe. Is the only thing he ever made
contributed to the meal. It was pineapple oranges, coconut pecans,
and pineapple orange juice. That's it. Um. And it was
always sort of a comedy of errors because he would
(01:14):
start with a whole coconut and he would get a
hammer and a screwdriver, be out there trying to open
it up, and then inevitably rotten every time. And then
he would go to the store and take it for
a refund. He would get a refund for his coconut
and would get another coconut. I guess what, it was
rotten too, And so then we almost always used the
(01:36):
stray COCONet, but every now and then it wasn't rotten.
And it was so great because I love coconut. I
know coconut is really divisive. Well, I love it. And
he would put aside like little pieces for me and
the milk, and I I loved it. It was delicious.
People like my friends and family that I've introduced to
it love it um And I would say, we never
(01:58):
in my family, it's never been Bruisia salad. We would
never go with that. And it's not a dessert. It
was a breakfast soup. A breakfast soup. Okay, it would
be like a side disturing breakfast or like the main
disturing the main soup, the main breakfast soup as opposed
to other breakfast soup right, this was the only one
we needed. Okay. Um, I don't think I've ever even
(02:22):
heard of ambrosia until I moved to Atlanta. Um. You know,
like it's the kind of thing that Yeah, I don't
think I've even tried it any version of it, let
alone your soup version. How did you hear hear about it?
I think it's just something I don't just one of
those things in the wind, you know, the wind whispered
(02:43):
Lauren or like or like maybe yeah, like while I
was researching some kind of some kind of old recipe
or looking through old recipe books from mid century. Uh yeah,
like my mom's mom from like relatively rural Ohio would
make various fruit salads. Um, but I don't think I
remember them ever containing coconut or even nuts. She was
(03:04):
baite on jello salads. But yeah, yeah, some people do.
It's it's a wild West out there when it comes
to AMBROI it is gelatine can in fact be involved.
But this brings us to our question, it does ambrosia?
What is it? Uh? Yeah, as we've been saying, it
(03:26):
can mean a lot of different things. Most humans from
a brief survey of the internet, Um, seemed to agree
that this fruit salad version that we are talking about
today has to have a fruit element and a creamy element.
Maybe maybe maybe the coconut is substitute for that. I
(03:48):
don't know, yeah, because we're going to get into that
because I've come to learn tomorrow horror, that a lot
of people use marshmallows, and the marshmallows was a replacement
for the coconut. So maybe I don't know. It's a mess.
It is, but I mean, okay, so we don't usually
do this, but in this particular case, it was so
(04:08):
funny that we wanted to include it. Yeah, so we
have the Miriam Webster definitions. One is the food of
the Greek and Roman gods. The ointment or perfume of
the gods. Okay, something extremely pleasing to taste or smell.
A dessert made of oranges and shredded coconut. Ha ha.
I love this side note of trademarked apple variety called
(04:31):
the Ambrosio. But yeah, that's not also novel we're talking about.
Because okay, so yes, there are so many variations. Um.
It seems like a lot of American versions include canned
orange wedges and canned pineapple coconut flakes, marshmallows and whipped
cream or cool whip or sour cream. No, no, no,
(04:57):
I'm sure it's fine. I'm sure it's fine. Other editions
you're gonna be so mad at me. I'm sorry. Any
other editions can be at chopped pecans, marischino cherries, canned peaches, fruit, cocktail, raisins, putting, cottage, cheese, mayo,
miracle whip, honey, vanilla, almond extract. Probably not all at
(05:18):
the same time. It's like a pick. It's like a pick,
and choose your your cream and your fruit and your crunch. No, sorry,
really no, I had I look, it's not I wrote
it down. I think it just provides a little bit tang. No,
everything in me is revolting against this. This is not right,
(05:42):
Lauren um. Some fresh updated versions include like like fresh
clementine wedges instead of the canned mandarin variety, and other
fresh fruits like a grapefruit segments or banana, pomegranate seeds,
mango papious, some fresh mint on top. Maybe, man, what
a world, what a world out there? I did some
(06:04):
I had like a side by research into New Zealand's
version of this because apparently it's big there. Um yeah,
and those tend to include ah, whipped cream and yogurt
as the as the cream base, and then berries or
other cut fruit like like grapes, and then marshmallows, and
then chocolate or gummies or both, and then sometimes crumbles
(06:28):
and meringue. How interesting, I know, right. Also they called
gummies soft lollies, and I had no idea that that
was a thing, but I love it. I did read, um,
because this was news to me that cream is usually involved.
And I did read that that is much cream. Yeah, yeah,
that that's some of the problem with it is that
(06:49):
then it degrades pretty quickly, like you have to eat
it fairly quickly. Um. So I'm wondering if in my family,
somewhere along the line they were like, you know, this
isn't worth We're not going to eat because we make
huge tubs of it. Okay, we're not gonna eat that
much that fast. Let's just get rid of the cream
elements and replace it with orange shoes, easy, easy, Yeah,
(07:09):
and then you've got your fruit soup. But there are
a lot of interesting takes on it right now, people
experimenting with it, trying to get back to the roots,
but also trying completely new things. And one of these
I found really interesting was a recipe from the two
thousand and six book The Lead Brothers Southern Cookbook, and
their version had ingredients like celery, avocado, cucumber, basil, and jalpino. Wow,
(07:37):
I'm that's a whole separate Yeah, it feels like a
different thing. Yeah, I want to try it, but I
don't know. Yeah, this is this is like a this
is reminding me of caspacco anyway, okay, um, yes, so
I've seen you. I've seen recipes without the fresh whipped
cream that call for it to like sit overnight to
(07:57):
kind of like meld in the fridge, and then other
recipes that are meant to be served fresh. I've seen
it described as like gooey, creamy or fluffy, very sweet
and a little tangy, with like bright sparks from the
fruit and a crunch from the coconut or other stuffs.
I I do. I've spent an embarrassing amount of time
perhaps thinking about my favorite part of ambrosia, and I
(08:19):
do really is love the texture difference of the pecans
and the coconut o everything else. It's a nice little
little fun thing happen. Yeah, yeah, No, that's totally a
brain thing. Your brain is excited about novel textures. So
there's that combination. It goes like, oh, let's try to
wear that which I A lot of friends I have
don't like coconut, and they always say it's a texture thing. Yeah,
(08:42):
I think that. I think like packaged shredded coconut tends
to be like just so like desiccated and like weird.
Like when you have that fresh stuff. Oh man, it's
a whole different thing. It is delicious punch alright, alright,
what about some nutrition? So I'm not even It really
depends on what you put in there. It's probably got
a lot of sugar. Um, if you're putting, I mean, y'all,
(09:05):
let your conscience be your guide, like if you're if
you're putting like marshmallows and also like a miracle whip
and also cool whip in something that's not a salad anymore.
And you're gonna make any upset if you enjoy it,
go for it. Don't don't invite any over. Yeah yeah, yeah,
(09:26):
you know, as as always, treats, treats are great. Portion
control is important. It's really funny to me because I
always assumed ambrosia was healthy because it's just fruit, right, well,
I mean, you know, fruit is I mean fairly? I
mean did your dad use canned fruit or fresh fruit?
Fresh fruit? Fresh freet as? We'll see. There you go,
that is healthy. That's fine. Yeah, I'm assuming it's the
(09:46):
juice probably where things would go wrong there. Ye again
a portion control, you're like a like a small glass
of juice is just fine. I'm sure that you were
consuming less juice than a glass. Yeah, because the juice
is my least favorite part. Oh, there go. In the
hierarchy of ingredients in the ambrosia, the juice is on
the bottom. Yeah, you're learning so much about me today. Um,
(10:09):
numbers are kind of hard to come by. They are
perhaps because it's such a wide what it could possibly be,
But it seems that these days not too many folks
are making ambrosia. I can certainly say in my group,
I'm the only one that does it. Um, and those
that do are largely in the South. I it varies
(10:30):
like okay, so again it's it's it's difficult to track
down real numbers. But um, but since Google Trends has
been compiling data about what people search for UM, which
is since two uh, folks in Louisiana have been more
likely than anyone else in the United States to search
for Ambrosia the fruit salad UM. But filling out the
rest of the top five is Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island
(10:54):
in Hawaii. How I know, Oh, I love it um.
Also during that time, Canadians were equally as likely as
Americans to search for it, but New Zealanders were way
more likely than either of us or both of us
put together. Yeah, and after that, Australia is basically the
only other country in the world with like appreciable interest
(11:15):
in searching for Ambrosia the fruit salad. That's I love
that right, it's all the cream based kind. I've opened
to try it unless Mayo isn't there and then stay away.
But I'll try it. I believe you know, one bite
(11:41):
of anything, you know, right, Yeah, maybe to see if
the second one does you better anyway. UM. In the
United States, searches for it do peak every year in
a November or December. It can vary, with a smaller
spikes around Easter, and also the fourth of July makes sense, UM,
and it looks like in New Zealand again based on
this Google search data. Um, it is like for Christmas
(12:02):
and or New Year's and that's what it's for. Um.
But I also read recipes saying it's like a classic
barbecue bring along thing. I don't know, Um, Canadian interest
is a lot more sporadic ambrosia any time of year.
You know what I'm feeling like ambrosia fruit soup. It
(12:23):
really is. I think that's what you know, it should
go by a different game. There, there you go. UM.
Something else I have come to learn through this research
is that ambrosia has a bit of a bad rap
these days, and it seems to be the consensus that's
largely because of the jello and or coconut Oh yeah, yeah.
(12:45):
I forgot to mention that there are definitely some versions
that um, that are like a like a jello salad,
version of an ambrosia salad, so many things. It could
be salads within salads. The possibilities, the possibilities. Um. But
it used to be pretty well liked. So let's get
(13:06):
into some of the history. But first let's get into
a quick break for word from our sponsor and we're back.
Thank you. Sponsor. Yes, thank you, and yes, we did
want to touch on briefly, uh Ambrosia in mythology. Yes, yes,
(13:29):
because in Greek and Roman mythology, ambrosia was the food
of the gods, particularly those who resided on Mount Olympus.
Eating it gave them immortality. Without it, they grew weak.
It was described in some places as a sort of
porridge composed of honey, fruit, olive, oil, barley, cheese, and water. Huh,
(13:51):
let that sink in for a second. Okay. Others described
it as an herb that prolonged the lives of mores
and gave gods immortality. Um, the gods bathed in ambrosia
and Homer's iliad um. They also used it like a perfume.
An immortal that dare eat ambrosia did so under the
(14:11):
sort of death, the ultimate punishment for partaking in a
divine food and only God, don't you dare? Yes, now,
it means chellow salad. Sometimes. The Greek poet Ikus first
coined the name in sixth century BC. It might be
a combination of ancient Greek words um for not and mortal,
(14:35):
you know, immortal, Yeah, and now, of course that's not
the Sometimes yellow based dish that often graces Southern polucks.
Different things, a little bit of a separation. Yeah, So,
recipes for ambrosia like dishes first began appearing in cookbooks
in the late eighteen hundreds, coinciding with citrus fruit becoming
(14:55):
increasingly available in markets. Most of these early recipes were
simple layers of sliced orange, coconut, and sugar, typically presented
in a glass dish. And if you remember from our
Oranges episode, at the time, citrus could be really expensive
and hard to come by, so citrus dishes were reserved
for special occasions like Christmas. Yeah. Yeah, all three of
(15:16):
those foods would have been like like, oh man, like
this is expensive and fancy. Yeah. Pineapples, yeah, my favorite
if you ever heard that one random facts in it. Yeah.
Over at Series Eats, Robert Moss's article how Ambrosia became
a Southern Christmas tradition, which was so so detailed and
(15:36):
helpful for this episode, Thank You, deposits that ambrosia possibly
originated in the Southern US. The earliest recipe for it
a Moss was able to find was from an eighteen
sixty seven cookbook out of North Carolina called Dixie Cookery
or How I Managed My Table for twelve Years by
Maria Massey Berenger. The recipe read great the white part
(15:56):
of the coconut, sweetened with a little sugar and placed
in a glass bowl, and alternate layers with pulped oranges
having a layer of coconut on top. Serve and ice
cream plates are saucers. However, recipes for ambrosia were fairly
widespread across America by the eighteen seventies, appearing in newspapers
from Rhode Island to Kansas. These recipes don't make any
mention of it being a particularly Southern thing, and on
(16:19):
top of that, these recipes appeared throughout the year and
did not seem to be just a Christmas thing. Yes,
when the once exotic fruits became more common, recipes for
ambrosia multiplied rapidly. South Carolina and Georgia had been growing
oranges since their early Colonnade days, with the industry relocated
(16:39):
to Florida by the eighteen thirties when folks realized at
the weather in Florida would be much more conducive to
growing citrus. Yeah, none of those freezes that ruin your
entire crop Yeah. After the Civil War, orange production shut
up from about one million boxes a year to five
million boxes a year. By the eighteen nineties, oranges became
more readily available and cheaper, especially in the South. Simultaneously,
(17:04):
railroads the completion of a network of East West railroads
meant that coconuts were becoming more available as well. An
article out of the San Francisco Chronicle from eight seventies
six red with each year the demand for the coconut increases.
Ships carrying coconuts from Hawaii to Heati and South America
dot in San Francisco and from there, some whole coconuts
(17:25):
were shipped east, while others were sent into small local
factories to be graded and canned, primarily for the use
of home cooks and confections. And this whole canned coconut
thing is a thing that I don't think. I mean,
I've seen canned coconut milk or cream, but I don't
think i've ever seen cann shredded coconut. Yeah. Ever, I've
seen pieces of it, like canned chunks, okay, but never shredded. Yeah,
(17:49):
I don't know. Anyway, future episode, As the dish became
more commonplace, so too, did differing interpretations of it. Mary D.
Petlow's book Old Southern Recipes that entry on ambrosia strongly
advises against using canned coconut, while James Beard's entry on
the same thing in his Fireside cookbook read the moist
(18:10):
can coconut works best for this love it. I know,
food battles. You know, it's one of our favorite things.
Whether or not ambrosia originated here, the South really embraced
it and diversified the dish, adding all kinds of fruits
and even things like man is oh No. Pineapple first
(18:31):
popped up as an ingredient in the eighteen eighties, or
at least as a written down ingredient around the same time.
Some recipes called for adding whipped cream or a splash
of sherry. Yeah. A. Stell Wilcox's nineteen o five recipe
from the original Buckeye called for not only oranges and pineapples,
but also bananas, strawberries, grated coconut finished with orange and
(18:53):
lemon juice. And this is when we see ambrosia's path
really diverged the fruit salad and the dessert. Yeah. However,
for most folks, ambrosia remained a simple layering of oranges, coconut,
and sugar um. This is also around the time it
started to pick up it's Christmas association. Even though the
(19:15):
ingredients were more readily available, they were still kind of
fancy for the time, and oranges are in season during
the fall. Right in December, people could get their hands
on fresh oranges, and it was pretty special, kind of
exciting thing. I think we forget about how exciting that
must have been. If you can't get them, you can't
get them any time other than like right around December January,
(19:36):
then you're like this sweet refreshing things. Yeah. Numerous holiday
menus published in the nineteen twenties from the South included ambrosia,
usually as a dessert. Ambrosia's place as a Christmas dish
only took hold in the South at this time, though
everywhere else was making it whenever whenever. Yeah. Washington d
(19:56):
c's The Evening Star profiled the holiday foods of Atlanta
and Georgian General, and the journalist wrote that these holiday
meals would include things like quote, freshly killed pork and
stacks of hot biscuits loaded on a plate like cordwood
and topped off with pies and boiled custard make a
favorite meal. The city folk will have their will have
(20:16):
their bought turkey and ambrosia the city folks city folk well.
A couple of years later, Lucy Everley published asp for
Ambrosia in the Evening Start with the comment Thanksgiving or
Christmas dinner would never seem quite complete without it. Yeah, gosh, certainly.
By the nineteen thirties, ambrosia was more often referred to
(20:36):
as a traditional Southern dish. Column called Old Southern Favorites
by Mrs S. R. Bill excellent name included her sup
for ambrosia. She wrote, the weekend before Christmas bought busy days.
The holidays brought lots of visitors, both young and old,
and the hostess always served refreshments, mostly cake of every
(20:57):
kind and flavor, accompanied by something else good such as
syllabub ambrosia, Spanish cream and other things. The New Orleans
Times pick a Une had a similar article that same year,
and in eighteen thirty nine Mrs W. L Owen wrote
for the Portland Orgonian. Down in Mobile, Alabama, where I
lived as a child, we always had ambrosia for Christmas
dinner dessert. It would not have been Christmas without it.
(21:18):
Oh and I love this like this, like right, the
salad dessert divide. Yeah, apparently this is a big thing,
like different families will almost kind of like war about
what course it should be served during. Yeah. Yeah, I
read a lot of people talking about how it will
be served next to the mashed potatoes during the thing,
which is to me very bizarre because this is a
(21:39):
breakfast soup. I don't know what everyone else is doing.
You have it for breakfast? Um? But yeah, yeah, people
do seem to get I love that too, the extra
layer of not only what is it? Yeah, but where
when do you? When do you serve it? When do
you serve it? I love it. People started experimenting even
(22:02):
more with ambrosia as more exciting ingredients came out, particularly
sweeter ingredients. Um. One of those being the Marshmallow creators
of marshmallow whip. And you can see our Marshmallow episode
because it has one of my favorite random bits and
it's about marshmallow whip that we've ever done. I love it. Anyway,
published a series of syndicated articles with recipes that included
(22:24):
their product. Ambrosia was one of these recipes. There you
go the recipe instructed the maker to pick three or
four things from this list of fruits oranges, bananas, great
great strawberries, cherries, marchino cherries, and stood figs as their base,
and mixed with a tablespoon of marshmallow, whipped creen. Ah yeah, yeah.
This is when a lot of processed foods were of
(22:46):
convenience foods were coming out, and over the next couple
of decades you would see a lot of people latch
onto those as a convenience, but be are like like, oh,
look at how fancy I am that I can afford
these convenience foods. Exactly. Yeah, And that's seems like I'm
sort of fascinated by this whole a company publishing a
book to get you to use more than ingredients and
(23:08):
just having a wide variety of all kinds of recipes
fascinating stuff. Recipe published in the Omaha Herald called for
a mixture of canned pineapples, white cherries, marshmallows, and whipped cream.
A similar recipe from Louisiana's Monroe Star included half a
pound of marshmallows and its ingredients half a pound. Those
(23:31):
things are light. I can't even fathom. Oh boy, uh.
And it also that recipe also included um sliced oranges,
heavy cream, and lemon juice. And yeah, the guy who
wrote the Serious Eats article, Robert Moss, he suspects that
the mission of coconut was because of the addition of marshmallow,
(23:52):
which could replace the sweetness, texture, and even color of coconut.
Huh yeah, okay, yeah, I'm mean one of these is
chewy and one is crunchy. I guess, I guess, like
coconut flake could be chewy. Yeah, I'm not sure, okay, sure,
ye sure. And then in the nineteen fifties, another player
(24:12):
intoes the ambrosia. Yeah. A summer Ambrosian respe published in
a Texas newspaper in nine called for a packet of
orange shelaton, orange rind, orange juice, shredded coconut, and evaporated milk. Okay,
yeah sure. A decade later, another Texas paper publish a
recipe for baked ambrosion baked Ambrosi. This one called for
(24:35):
a can of pineapple, a can of free cocktail, banana's
mini marshmalls, grated coconut mixed together, bake at three fifty.
I've never heard of I mean, I learned a lot
in this episode, but baked a Yeah, I mean the
jello salad thing makes perfect sense to me because there
was nothing that a person would not turn into a
jello salad during mid century. But like, oh gosh, it's
(24:59):
in us event terrifying. Both love it and also access
to home refrigeration was key part of ambrosia's popularity. Yeah,
because now you could add in whipped cream or creamy sure, yeah,
or much more easily anyway to get to get and
keep those products fresh. Right. The nineteen fifties is when
the term ambrosia's salad started entering the literature. Previously, it
(25:22):
had been called well, a couple of different things, but
then ambrosia. But then the salad idea really started picking
up in the nineteen fifties. UM. It gained popularity through
the seventies. UM then went through two distinct peaks and
usage in the early eighties and the mid nineties. UM
fewer people have been publishing things about ambrosia salad since
nineteen Yeah, Uh, ambrosia in in the literature is all
(25:47):
over the place that there are, interestingly, peaks in the
eighteen seventies, the eighteen nineties and the late nineteen twenties
that line up with these prior historical points you've been
talking about. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I I find this wonderful.
It's kind of endearing to me that just the simple
recipe of oranges, coconut and sugar was refreshing and sweet
(26:07):
and delicious enough that people decided to call it ambrosia, right,
I know. I love it. And tracing Ambrosa's history is
sort of like a history of what people were excited about,
or what was cheap and available or inventive ways to
make the holidays special on a budget. And I love
that families personalized it so to their taste. To the point,
(26:28):
if you tell me you're making ambrosia, I have no
idea what that means, zero and no clear concept could
be literally anything I assume. I'm assuming there's fruit involved,
but that's kind of the sort it. Yeah, And I
love that. Um. It's like a choose your own adventure recipe. Um.
(26:48):
And as someone who makes dishes for holidays that I
try to capture the spirit. I also love that some
recipes are I think all color bits absolutely like green, white,
and red for Christmas, Like it looks like the Chris mislights,
Oh sure, it's um. It's just sweet to me that
people trying to make something special and they sometimes fail spectacularly,
(27:08):
but no one says anything and it keeps getting made
year after year. I don't know. I feel like there's
a lot of nostalgia for it, and I read some
arguments that like it's it's it's a tasty product, like
it like it feels like it might feel a little
bit um indulgent because you're you're doing this thing that
you know that you're not. You're like, this isn't a salad. Yes,
I'll take a scoop sort of sort of like you know,
(27:31):
candied candied sweet potatoes or yams or whatever with marshmallow
and brown sugar, and it's essentially a dessert, but it
serves as a side dish. Yeah, I find it. I
don't know. Something about it warms my heart. I did
read a lot of articles of people and it really
cracked me up of finally admitting to their mom or
their grandmother that they don't like and being so shocked,
(27:57):
what abrosia? Why have you waited fifty gosh, I'm like
committed to making an ambrosia salad. For one of the
upcoming holidays. I have no idea what it will be.
It's gonna be like, it's going to be like a
tiny amount. It's going to be like like a cup
worth total, because I don't think anyone but me we'll
(28:20):
have it's gonna have any um And yeah, but oh
it is sweet yea, literally and figuratively it is. It
is um And we would love to hear from listeners
what ambrosia means to you. Oh my gosh, so much.
Send recipes, send photographs, let us know about your ambrosia mishaps. Yes,
(28:43):
all of it. Um uh. And we have some listeners
who have already written in about other things, probably not ambrosia. Um.
But but first we've got a quick break for a
word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
(29:04):
thank you, And we're back with no like the gods.
It was very godlike and dignified. It was anything in
this world. Those are two words applied to our listener.
Male jingles always applied to us. And also, yes that thing. Yeah,
(29:29):
I feel I feel powerful right now. Oh gosh, Emily wrote,
I've been behind and after listening to the Picnic episode
with all the Yogi Bear talk. I needed to share
my introduction to Yogi Bear, but before I could, someone
else wrote in about her favorite picnic lo and Behold
another Appalachian trail a T through hiker. On the a
T we have special words and slang for a lot
(29:50):
of common things. One is to yogi something. This usually
means to talk to a day hiker or weekend tiker,
essentially get food for free. As the other through hiker
wrote up, through hikers appetite knows no bounds, Thus my
introduction to Yogi Bear on the trail. Many people get
trail names, nicknames that describe some aspect of your personality,
(30:11):
trail experience, or life experience. I'm at many a hiker
with Yogi in their name. While through hiking, I listened
to several podcasts and thought a lot about food, So
I'm glad your podcast didn't exist when I hiked. Always
happy to hear about another through hiker's experience, especially when
it involves some surprise donuts. In Pennsylvania widely regarded as
one of the worst a T states. No shade on
(30:33):
the actual state. It's just full of rocks that hurt
your feet with very few views ps. If you want
to know more about a t slag, I'll share this
other fun phrase, pink blazing. Pink blazing is when a
hiker hike slower or faster than he normally would in
order to stay with a lady hiker he's interested in.
I love it. So oh gosh, this is a subculture
(30:57):
that I know nothing about, aside from these two delightful listeners,
males and ah. So thank you. Um Taylor wrote, thank
you for the cider episode. You're welcome. My husband and
I are big cider drinkers and decided to spend our
summer vacation locally in Ontario, Canada this year. For ten days,
we drove around the province and stopped at forty one
(31:19):
craft cideries. We sipped our way around the province, picking
up bottles as souvenirs as we went. It was amazing
the variety of cider. It was amazing the variety of
ciders that different people were making. Notable ones were a
tequila barrel aged cider, an earl grade tea cider, and
cherry cider. In the end, we estimated that we sampled
over two hundred different ciders and brought home more than
(31:41):
one hundred lids to enjoy throughout the year. There are
actually three distinct cider and wine regions in Ontario, with
other producers sprinkled throughout, and almost a hundred craft cider brewers.
We've even taken it a little further and brew our
own cider right at home. It's really simple to make.
It just takes a little time. And of course bacteria.
That's wonderful. Impressive, that is impressive. I love this. Yeah,
(32:07):
that is a lot of heck insider it is and
those varieties sound delightful. Gosh, Ontario on the list. Yeah,
we've been We've been getting a lot of listener listener
contacts about coming to Canada. It's true. I mean, I
I'm down. I'm down. Maybe not in my winter February,
(32:30):
that might be like a summer situation for me. Yeah, yeah,
I understand, I understand. Um. Well, we'll keep you posted
on that. Yeah. And in the meantime, thanks to these
listeners for writing in. If you would like to write
to us, you can. Our email is hello at savor
pod dot com. We're also in social media and you
can find us on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram at
(32:50):
savor pod. And we do hope to hear from you.
The Savor is a production of I heart Radio and
Stuff Media. You'd like to hear more podcasts from my
heart Radio, you can visit the i heart Radio app podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Vagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor Protection of I Heart Radio
and Stuff Media. I'm Anny Rees and I'm Lauren vocal
Obam and today we're talking about ambrosia, like the fruit
salad kind of thing. Yeah, we'll touch on the mythological one. Yeah, yeah,
it's part of the story. But um, but but ambrosia
has enough alternate definitions as it stands, we don't really
need to get that far into mythology. I love this
(00:31):
so much. I have rarely been so delighted by research
that I wasn't expecting to be delighted by. I wasn't
I thought I had a very clear idea what ambrosia was.
And it turns out no, very few other humans seem
to agree with you, because because because your family eats
this every year, yes, um, we make it for Thanksgiving
(00:54):
and Christmas. And yeah, I've come to learn most other
people when they hear ambro so they do not think
of this. But what it was was my dad. It
was his recipe. Is the only thing he ever made
contributed to the meal. It was pineapple oranges, coconut pecans,
and pineapple orange juice. That's it. Um. And it was
always sort of a comedy of errors because he would
(01:14):
start with a whole coconut and he would get a
hammer and a screwdriver, be out there trying to open
it up, and then inevitably rotten every time. And then
he would go to the store and take it for
a refund. He would get a refund for his coconut
and would get another coconut. I guess what, it was
rotten too, And so then we almost always used the
(01:36):
stray COCONet, but every now and then it wasn't rotten.
And it was so great because I love coconut. I
know coconut is really divisive. Well, I love it. And
he would put aside like little pieces for me and
the milk, and I I loved it. It was delicious.
People like my friends and family that I've introduced to
it love it um And I would say, we never
(01:58):
in my family, it's never been Bruisia salad. We would
never go with that. And it's not a dessert. It
was a breakfast soup. A breakfast soup. Okay, it would
be like a side disturing breakfast or like the main
disturing the main soup, the main breakfast soup as opposed
to other breakfast soup right, this was the only one
we needed. Okay. Um, I don't think I've ever even
(02:22):
heard of ambrosia until I moved to Atlanta. Um. You know,
like it's the kind of thing that Yeah, I don't
think I've even tried it any version of it, let
alone your soup version. How did you hear hear about it?
I think it's just something I don't just one of
those things in the wind, you know, the wind whispered
(02:43):
Lauren or like or like maybe yeah, like while I
was researching some kind of some kind of old recipe
or looking through old recipe books from mid century. Uh yeah,
like my mom's mom from like relatively rural Ohio would
make various fruit salads. Um, but I don't think I
remember them ever containing coconut or even nuts. She was
(03:04):
baite on jello salads. But yeah, yeah, some people do.
It's it's a wild West out there when it comes
to AMBROI it is gelatine can in fact be involved.
But this brings us to our question, it does ambrosia?
What is it? Uh? Yeah, as we've been saying, it
(03:26):
can mean a lot of different things. Most humans from
a brief survey of the internet, Um, seemed to agree
that this fruit salad version that we are talking about
today has to have a fruit element and a creamy element.
Maybe maybe maybe the coconut is substitute for that. I
(03:48):
don't know, yeah, because we're going to get into that
because I've come to learn tomorrow horror, that a lot
of people use marshmallows, and the marshmallows was a replacement
for the coconut. So maybe I don't know. It's a mess.
It is, but I mean, okay, so we don't usually
do this, but in this particular case, it was so
(04:08):
funny that we wanted to include it. Yeah, so we
have the Miriam Webster definitions. One is the food of
the Greek and Roman gods. The ointment or perfume of
the gods. Okay, something extremely pleasing to taste or smell.
A dessert made of oranges and shredded coconut. Ha ha.
I love this side note of trademarked apple variety called
(04:31):
the Ambrosio. But yeah, that's not also novel we're talking about.
Because okay, so yes, there are so many variations. Um.
It seems like a lot of American versions include canned
orange wedges and canned pineapple coconut flakes, marshmallows and whipped
cream or cool whip or sour cream. No, no, no,
(04:57):
I'm sure it's fine. I'm sure it's fine. Other editions
you're gonna be so mad at me. I'm sorry. Any
other editions can be at chopped pecans, marischino cherries, canned peaches, fruit, cocktail, raisins, putting, cottage, cheese, mayo,
miracle whip, honey, vanilla, almond extract. Probably not all at
(05:18):
the same time. It's like a pick. It's like a pick,
and choose your your cream and your fruit and your crunch. No, sorry,
really no, I had I look, it's not I wrote
it down. I think it just provides a little bit tang. No,
everything in me is revolting against this. This is not right,
(05:42):
Lauren um. Some fresh updated versions include like like fresh
clementine wedges instead of the canned mandarin variety, and other
fresh fruits like a grapefruit segments or banana, pomegranate seeds,
mango papious, some fresh mint on top. Maybe, man, what
a world, what a world out there? I did some
(06:04):
I had like a side by research into New Zealand's
version of this because apparently it's big there. Um yeah,
and those tend to include ah, whipped cream and yogurt
as the as the cream base, and then berries or
other cut fruit like like grapes, and then marshmallows, and
then chocolate or gummies or both, and then sometimes crumbles
(06:28):
and meringue. How interesting, I know, right. Also they called
gummies soft lollies, and I had no idea that that
was a thing, but I love it. I did read, um,
because this was news to me that cream is usually involved.
And I did read that that is much cream. Yeah, yeah,
that that's some of the problem with it is that
(06:49):
then it degrades pretty quickly, like you have to eat
it fairly quickly. Um. So I'm wondering if in my family,
somewhere along the line they were like, you know, this
isn't worth We're not going to eat because we make
huge tubs of it. Okay, we're not gonna eat that
much that fast. Let's just get rid of the cream
elements and replace it with orange shoes, easy, easy, Yeah,
(07:09):
and then you've got your fruit soup. But there are
a lot of interesting takes on it right now, people
experimenting with it, trying to get back to the roots,
but also trying completely new things. And one of these
I found really interesting was a recipe from the two
thousand and six book The Lead Brothers Southern Cookbook, and
their version had ingredients like celery, avocado, cucumber, basil, and jalpino. Wow,
(07:37):
I'm that's a whole separate Yeah, it feels like a
different thing. Yeah, I want to try it, but I
don't know. Yeah, this is this is like a this
is reminding me of caspacco anyway, okay, um, yes, so
I've seen you. I've seen recipes without the fresh whipped
cream that call for it to like sit overnight to
(07:57):
kind of like meld in the fridge, and then other
recipes that are meant to be served fresh. I've seen
it described as like gooey, creamy or fluffy, very sweet
and a little tangy, with like bright sparks from the
fruit and a crunch from the coconut or other stuffs.
I I do. I've spent an embarrassing amount of time
perhaps thinking about my favorite part of ambrosia, and I
(08:19):
do really is love the texture difference of the pecans
and the coconut o everything else. It's a nice little
little fun thing happen. Yeah, yeah, No, that's totally a
brain thing. Your brain is excited about novel textures. So
there's that combination. It goes like, oh, let's try to
wear that which I A lot of friends I have
don't like coconut, and they always say it's a texture thing. Yeah,
(08:42):
I think that. I think like packaged shredded coconut tends
to be like just so like desiccated and like weird.
Like when you have that fresh stuff. Oh man, it's
a whole different thing. It is delicious punch alright, alright,
what about some nutrition? So I'm not even It really
depends on what you put in there. It's probably got
a lot of sugar. Um, if you're putting, I mean, y'all,
(09:05):
let your conscience be your guide, like if you're if
you're putting like marshmallows and also like a miracle whip
and also cool whip in something that's not a salad anymore.
And you're gonna make any upset if you enjoy it,
go for it. Don't don't invite any over. Yeah yeah, yeah,
(09:26):
you know, as as always, treats, treats are great. Portion
control is important. It's really funny to me because I
always assumed ambrosia was healthy because it's just fruit, right, well,
I mean, you know, fruit is I mean fairly? I
mean did your dad use canned fruit or fresh fruit?
Fresh fruit? Fresh freet as? We'll see. There you go,
that is healthy. That's fine. Yeah, I'm assuming it's the
(09:46):
juice probably where things would go wrong there. Ye again
a portion control, you're like a like a small glass
of juice is just fine. I'm sure that you were
consuming less juice than a glass. Yeah, because the juice
is my least favorite part. Oh, there go. In the
hierarchy of ingredients in the ambrosia, the juice is on
the bottom. Yeah, you're learning so much about me today. Um,
(10:09):
numbers are kind of hard to come by. They are
perhaps because it's such a wide what it could possibly be,
But it seems that these days not too many folks
are making ambrosia. I can certainly say in my group,
I'm the only one that does it. Um, and those
that do are largely in the South. I it varies
(10:30):
like okay, so again it's it's it's difficult to track
down real numbers. But um, but since Google Trends has
been compiling data about what people search for UM, which
is since two uh, folks in Louisiana have been more
likely than anyone else in the United States to search
for Ambrosia the fruit salad UM. But filling out the
rest of the top five is Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island
(10:54):
in Hawaii. How I know, Oh, I love it um.
Also during that time, Canadians were equally as likely as
Americans to search for it, but New Zealanders were way
more likely than either of us or both of us
put together. Yeah, and after that, Australia is basically the
only other country in the world with like appreciable interest
(11:15):
in searching for Ambrosia the fruit salad. That's I love
that right, it's all the cream based kind. I've opened
to try it unless Mayo isn't there and then stay away.
But I'll try it. I believe you know, one bite
(11:41):
of anything, you know, right, Yeah, maybe to see if
the second one does you better anyway. UM. In the
United States, searches for it do peak every year in
a November or December. It can vary, with a smaller
spikes around Easter, and also the fourth of July makes sense, UM,
and it looks like in New Zealand again based on
this Google search data. Um, it is like for Christmas
(12:02):
and or New Year's and that's what it's for. Um.
But I also read recipes saying it's like a classic
barbecue bring along thing. I don't know, Um, Canadian interest
is a lot more sporadic ambrosia any time of year.
You know what I'm feeling like ambrosia fruit soup. It
(12:23):
really is. I think that's what you know, it should
go by a different game. There, there you go. UM.
Something else I have come to learn through this research
is that ambrosia has a bit of a bad rap
these days, and it seems to be the consensus that's
largely because of the jello and or coconut Oh yeah, yeah.
(12:45):
I forgot to mention that there are definitely some versions
that um, that are like a like a jello salad,
version of an ambrosia salad, so many things. It could
be salads within salads. The possibilities, the possibilities. Um. But
it used to be pretty well liked. So let's get
(13:06):
into some of the history. But first let's get into
a quick break for word from our sponsor and we're back.
Thank you. Sponsor. Yes, thank you, and yes, we did
want to touch on briefly, uh Ambrosia in mythology. Yes, yes,
(13:29):
because in Greek and Roman mythology, ambrosia was the food
of the gods, particularly those who resided on Mount Olympus.
Eating it gave them immortality. Without it, they grew weak.
It was described in some places as a sort of
porridge composed of honey, fruit, olive, oil, barley, cheese, and water. Huh,
(13:51):
let that sink in for a second. Okay. Others described
it as an herb that prolonged the lives of mores
and gave gods immortality. Um, the gods bathed in ambrosia
and Homer's iliad um. They also used it like a perfume.
An immortal that dare eat ambrosia did so under the
(14:11):
sort of death, the ultimate punishment for partaking in a
divine food and only God, don't you dare? Yes, now,
it means chellow salad. Sometimes. The Greek poet Ikus first
coined the name in sixth century BC. It might be
a combination of ancient Greek words um for not and mortal,
(14:35):
you know, immortal, Yeah, and now, of course that's not
the Sometimes yellow based dish that often graces Southern polucks.
Different things, a little bit of a separation. Yeah, So,
recipes for ambrosia like dishes first began appearing in cookbooks
in the late eighteen hundreds, coinciding with citrus fruit becoming
(14:55):
increasingly available in markets. Most of these early recipes were
simple layers of sliced orange, coconut, and sugar, typically presented
in a glass dish. And if you remember from our
Oranges episode, at the time, citrus could be really expensive
and hard to come by, so citrus dishes were reserved
for special occasions like Christmas. Yeah. Yeah, all three of
(15:16):
those foods would have been like like, oh man, like
this is expensive and fancy. Yeah. Pineapples, yeah, my favorite
if you ever heard that one random facts in it. Yeah.
Over at Series Eats, Robert Moss's article how Ambrosia became
a Southern Christmas tradition, which was so so detailed and
(15:36):
helpful for this episode, Thank You, deposits that ambrosia possibly
originated in the Southern US. The earliest recipe for it
a Moss was able to find was from an eighteen
sixty seven cookbook out of North Carolina called Dixie Cookery
or How I Managed My Table for twelve Years by
Maria Massey Berenger. The recipe read great the white part
(15:56):
of the coconut, sweetened with a little sugar and placed
in a glass bowl, and alternate layers with pulped oranges
having a layer of coconut on top. Serve and ice
cream plates are saucers. However, recipes for ambrosia were fairly
widespread across America by the eighteen seventies, appearing in newspapers
from Rhode Island to Kansas. These recipes don't make any
mention of it being a particularly Southern thing, and on
(16:19):
top of that, these recipes appeared throughout the year and
did not seem to be just a Christmas thing. Yes,
when the once exotic fruits became more common, recipes for
ambrosia multiplied rapidly. South Carolina and Georgia had been growing
oranges since their early Colonnade days, with the industry relocated
(16:39):
to Florida by the eighteen thirties when folks realized at
the weather in Florida would be much more conducive to
growing citrus. Yeah, none of those freezes that ruin your
entire crop Yeah. After the Civil War, orange production shut
up from about one million boxes a year to five
million boxes a year. By the eighteen nineties, oranges became
more readily available and cheaper, especially in the South. Simultaneously,
(17:04):
railroads the completion of a network of East West railroads
meant that coconuts were becoming more available as well. An
article out of the San Francisco Chronicle from eight seventies
six red with each year the demand for the coconut increases.
Ships carrying coconuts from Hawaii to Heati and South America
dot in San Francisco and from there, some whole coconuts
(17:25):
were shipped east, while others were sent into small local
factories to be graded and canned, primarily for the use
of home cooks and confections. And this whole canned coconut
thing is a thing that I don't think. I mean,
I've seen canned coconut milk or cream, but I don't
think i've ever seen cann shredded coconut. Yeah. Ever, I've
seen pieces of it, like canned chunks, okay, but never shredded. Yeah,
(17:49):
I don't know. Anyway, future episode, As the dish became
more commonplace, so too, did differing interpretations of it. Mary D.
Petlow's book Old Southern Recipes that entry on ambrosia strongly
advises against using canned coconut, while James Beard's entry on
the same thing in his Fireside cookbook read the moist
(18:10):
can coconut works best for this love it. I know,
food battles. You know, it's one of our favorite things.
Whether or not ambrosia originated here, the South really embraced
it and diversified the dish, adding all kinds of fruits
and even things like man is oh No. Pineapple first
(18:31):
popped up as an ingredient in the eighteen eighties, or
at least as a written down ingredient around the same time.
Some recipes called for adding whipped cream or a splash
of sherry. Yeah. A. Stell Wilcox's nineteen o five recipe
from the original Buckeye called for not only oranges and pineapples,
but also bananas, strawberries, grated coconut finished with orange and
(18:53):
lemon juice. And this is when we see ambrosia's path
really diverged the fruit salad and the dessert. Yeah. However,
for most folks, ambrosia remained a simple layering of oranges, coconut,
and sugar um. This is also around the time it
started to pick up it's Christmas association. Even though the
(19:15):
ingredients were more readily available, they were still kind of
fancy for the time, and oranges are in season during
the fall. Right in December, people could get their hands
on fresh oranges, and it was pretty special, kind of
exciting thing. I think we forget about how exciting that
must have been. If you can't get them, you can't
get them any time other than like right around December January,
(19:36):
then you're like this sweet refreshing things. Yeah. Numerous holiday
menus published in the nineteen twenties from the South included ambrosia,
usually as a dessert. Ambrosia's place as a Christmas dish
only took hold in the South at this time, though
everywhere else was making it whenever whenever. Yeah. Washington d
(19:56):
c's The Evening Star profiled the holiday foods of Atlanta
and Georgian General, and the journalist wrote that these holiday
meals would include things like quote, freshly killed pork and
stacks of hot biscuits loaded on a plate like cordwood
and topped off with pies and boiled custard make a
favorite meal. The city folk will have their will have
(20:16):
their bought turkey and ambrosia the city folks city folk well.
A couple of years later, Lucy Everley published asp for
Ambrosia in the Evening Start with the comment Thanksgiving or
Christmas dinner would never seem quite complete without it. Yeah, gosh, certainly.
By the nineteen thirties, ambrosia was more often referred to
(20:36):
as a traditional Southern dish. Column called Old Southern Favorites
by Mrs S. R. Bill excellent name included her sup
for ambrosia. She wrote, the weekend before Christmas bought busy days.
The holidays brought lots of visitors, both young and old,
and the hostess always served refreshments, mostly cake of every
(20:57):
kind and flavor, accompanied by something else good such as
syllabub ambrosia, Spanish cream and other things. The New Orleans
Times pick a Une had a similar article that same year,
and in eighteen thirty nine Mrs W. L Owen wrote
for the Portland Orgonian. Down in Mobile, Alabama, where I
lived as a child, we always had ambrosia for Christmas
dinner dessert. It would not have been Christmas without it.
(21:18):
Oh and I love this like this, like right, the
salad dessert divide. Yeah, apparently this is a big thing,
like different families will almost kind of like war about
what course it should be served during. Yeah. Yeah, I
read a lot of people talking about how it will
be served next to the mashed potatoes during the thing,
which is to me very bizarre because this is a
(21:39):
breakfast soup. I don't know what everyone else is doing.
You have it for breakfast? Um? But yeah, yeah, people
do seem to get I love that too, the extra
layer of not only what is it? Yeah, but where
when do you? When do you serve it? When do
you serve it? I love it. People started experimenting even
(22:02):
more with ambrosia as more exciting ingredients came out, particularly
sweeter ingredients. Um. One of those being the Marshmallow creators
of marshmallow whip. And you can see our Marshmallow episode
because it has one of my favorite random bits and
it's about marshmallow whip that we've ever done. I love it. Anyway,
published a series of syndicated articles with recipes that included
(22:24):
their product. Ambrosia was one of these recipes. There you
go the recipe instructed the maker to pick three or
four things from this list of fruits oranges, bananas, great
great strawberries, cherries, marchino cherries, and stood figs as their base,
and mixed with a tablespoon of marshmallow, whipped creen. Ah yeah, yeah.
This is when a lot of processed foods were of
(22:46):
convenience foods were coming out, and over the next couple
of decades you would see a lot of people latch
onto those as a convenience, but be are like like, oh,
look at how fancy I am that I can afford
these convenience foods. Exactly. Yeah, And that's seems like I'm
sort of fascinated by this whole a company publishing a
book to get you to use more than ingredients and
(23:08):
just having a wide variety of all kinds of recipes
fascinating stuff. Recipe published in the Omaha Herald called for
a mixture of canned pineapples, white cherries, marshmallows, and whipped cream.
A similar recipe from Louisiana's Monroe Star included half a
pound of marshmallows and its ingredients half a pound. Those
(23:31):
things are light. I can't even fathom. Oh boy, uh.
And it also that recipe also included um sliced oranges,
heavy cream, and lemon juice. And yeah, the guy who
wrote the Serious Eats article, Robert Moss, he suspects that
the mission of coconut was because of the addition of marshmallow,
(23:52):
which could replace the sweetness, texture, and even color of coconut.
Huh yeah, okay, yeah, I'm mean one of these is
chewy and one is crunchy. I guess, I guess, like
coconut flake could be chewy. Yeah, I'm not sure, okay, sure,
ye sure. And then in the nineteen fifties, another player
(24:12):
intoes the ambrosia. Yeah. A summer Ambrosian respe published in
a Texas newspaper in nine called for a packet of
orange shelaton, orange rind, orange juice, shredded coconut, and evaporated milk. Okay,
yeah sure. A decade later, another Texas paper publish a
recipe for baked ambrosion baked Ambrosi. This one called for
(24:35):
a can of pineapple, a can of free cocktail, banana's
mini marshmalls, grated coconut mixed together, bake at three fifty.
I've never heard of I mean, I learned a lot
in this episode, but baked a Yeah, I mean the
jello salad thing makes perfect sense to me because there
was nothing that a person would not turn into a
jello salad during mid century. But like, oh gosh, it's
(24:59):
in us event terrifying. Both love it and also access
to home refrigeration was key part of ambrosia's popularity. Yeah,
because now you could add in whipped cream or creamy sure, yeah,
or much more easily anyway to get to get and
keep those products fresh. Right. The nineteen fifties is when
the term ambrosia's salad started entering the literature. Previously, it
(25:22):
had been called well, a couple of different things, but
then ambrosia. But then the salad idea really started picking
up in the nineteen fifties. UM. It gained popularity through
the seventies. UM then went through two distinct peaks and
usage in the early eighties and the mid nineties. UM
fewer people have been publishing things about ambrosia salad since
nineteen Yeah, Uh, ambrosia in in the literature is all
(25:47):
over the place that there are, interestingly, peaks in the
eighteen seventies, the eighteen nineties and the late nineteen twenties
that line up with these prior historical points you've been
talking about. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I I find this wonderful.
It's kind of endearing to me that just the simple
recipe of oranges, coconut and sugar was refreshing and sweet
(26:07):
and delicious enough that people decided to call it ambrosia, right,
I know. I love it. And tracing Ambrosa's history is
sort of like a history of what people were excited about,
or what was cheap and available or inventive ways to
make the holidays special on a budget. And I love
that families personalized it so to their taste. To the point,
(26:28):
if you tell me you're making ambrosia, I have no
idea what that means, zero and no clear concept could
be literally anything I assume. I'm assuming there's fruit involved,
but that's kind of the sort it. Yeah, And I
love that. Um. It's like a choose your own adventure recipe. Um.
(26:48):
And as someone who makes dishes for holidays that I
try to capture the spirit. I also love that some
recipes are I think all color bits absolutely like green, white,
and red for Christmas, Like it looks like the Chris mislights,
Oh sure, it's um. It's just sweet to me that
people trying to make something special and they sometimes fail spectacularly,
(27:08):
but no one says anything and it keeps getting made
year after year. I don't know. I feel like there's
a lot of nostalgia for it, and I read some
arguments that like it's it's it's a tasty product, like
it like it feels like it might feel a little
bit um indulgent because you're you're doing this thing that
you know that you're not. You're like, this isn't a salad. Yes,
I'll take a scoop sort of sort of like you know,
(27:31):
candied candied sweet potatoes or yams or whatever with marshmallow
and brown sugar, and it's essentially a dessert, but it
serves as a side dish. Yeah, I find it. I
don't know. Something about it warms my heart. I did
read a lot of articles of people and it really
cracked me up of finally admitting to their mom or
their grandmother that they don't like and being so shocked,
(27:57):
what abrosia? Why have you waited fifty gosh, I'm like
committed to making an ambrosia salad. For one of the
upcoming holidays. I have no idea what it will be.
It's gonna be like, it's going to be like a
tiny amount. It's going to be like like a cup
worth total, because I don't think anyone but me we'll
(28:20):
have it's gonna have any um And yeah, but oh
it is sweet yea, literally and figuratively it is. It
is um And we would love to hear from listeners
what ambrosia means to you. Oh my gosh, so much.
Send recipes, send photographs, let us know about your ambrosia mishaps. Yes,
(28:43):
all of it. Um uh. And we have some listeners
who have already written in about other things, probably not ambrosia. Um.
But but first we've got a quick break for a
word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
(29:04):
thank you, And we're back with no like the gods.
It was very godlike and dignified. It was anything in
this world. Those are two words applied to our listener.
Male jingles always applied to us. And also, yes that thing. Yeah,
(29:29):
I feel I feel powerful right now. Oh gosh, Emily wrote,
I've been behind and after listening to the Picnic episode
with all the Yogi Bear talk. I needed to share
my introduction to Yogi Bear, but before I could, someone
else wrote in about her favorite picnic lo and Behold
another Appalachian trail a T through hiker. On the a
T we have special words and slang for a lot
(29:50):
of common things. One is to yogi something. This usually
means to talk to a day hiker or weekend tiker,
essentially get food for free. As the other through hiker
wrote up, through hikers appetite knows no bounds, Thus my
introduction to Yogi Bear on the trail. Many people get
trail names, nicknames that describe some aspect of your personality,
(30:11):
trail experience, or life experience. I'm at many a hiker
with Yogi in their name. While through hiking, I listened
to several podcasts and thought a lot about food, So
I'm glad your podcast didn't exist when I hiked. Always
happy to hear about another through hiker's experience, especially when
it involves some surprise donuts. In Pennsylvania widely regarded as
one of the worst a T states. No shade on
(30:33):
the actual state. It's just full of rocks that hurt
your feet with very few views ps. If you want
to know more about a t slag, I'll share this
other fun phrase, pink blazing. Pink blazing is when a
hiker hike slower or faster than he normally would in
order to stay with a lady hiker he's interested in.
I love it. So oh gosh, this is a subculture
(30:57):
that I know nothing about, aside from these two delightful listeners,
males and ah. So thank you. Um Taylor wrote, thank
you for the cider episode. You're welcome. My husband and
I are big cider drinkers and decided to spend our
summer vacation locally in Ontario, Canada this year. For ten days,
we drove around the province and stopped at forty one
(31:19):
craft cideries. We sipped our way around the province, picking
up bottles as souvenirs as we went. It was amazing
the variety of cider. It was amazing the variety of
ciders that different people were making. Notable ones were a
tequila barrel aged cider, an earl grade tea cider, and
cherry cider. In the end, we estimated that we sampled
over two hundred different ciders and brought home more than
(31:41):
one hundred lids to enjoy throughout the year. There are
actually three distinct cider and wine regions in Ontario, with
other producers sprinkled throughout, and almost a hundred craft cider brewers.
We've even taken it a little further and brew our
own cider right at home. It's really simple to make.
It just takes a little time. And of course bacteria.
That's wonderful. Impressive, that is impressive. I love this. Yeah,
(32:07):
that is a lot of heck insider it is and
those varieties sound delightful. Gosh, Ontario on the list. Yeah,
we've been We've been getting a lot of listener listener
contacts about coming to Canada. It's true. I mean, I
I'm down. I'm down. Maybe not in my winter February,
(32:30):
that might be like a summer situation for me. Yeah, yeah,
I understand, I understand. Um. Well, we'll keep you posted
on that. Yeah. And in the meantime, thanks to these
listeners for writing in. If you would like to write
to us, you can. Our email is hello at savor
pod dot com. We're also in social media and you
can find us on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram at
(32:50):
savor pod. And we do hope to hear from you.
The Savor is a production of I heart Radio and
Stuff Media. You'd like to hear more podcasts from my
heart Radio, you can visit the i heart Radio app podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as
always to our super producers Dylan Vagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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